Performance of direct methanol polymer electrolyte fuel cell
- Korea Institute of Energy Research, Taejeon (Korea, Republic of)
Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) using polymer electrolyte membrane are promising candidate for application of portable power sources and transportation applications because they do not require any fuel processing equipment and can be operated at low temperature of 60{degrees}C - 130{degrees}C. Elimination of the fuel processor results in simpler design, higher operation reliability, lower weight volume, and lower capital and operating cost. However, methanol as a fuel is relatively electrochemical inert, so that kinetics of the methanol oxidation is too slow. Platinum and Pt-based binary alloy electrodes have been extensively studied for methanol electro-oxidation in acid electrolyte at ambient and elevated temperatures. Particularly, unsupported carbon Pt-Ru catalyst was found to be superior to the anode of DMFC using a proton exchange membrane electrolyte (Nafion). The objective of this study is to develop the high performance DNTC. This paper summarizes the results from half cell and single cell tests, which focus on the electrode manufacturing process, catalyst selection, and operating conditions of single cell such as methanol concentration, temperature and pressure.
- Research Organization:
- Fuel Cell Seminar Organizing Committee (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 460316
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-961107--Absts.; ON: TI97001494
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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