Long Term Performance Study of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Fed with Alcohol Blends

Teresa J. Leo, Miguel A. Raso, Emilio Navarro and Eleuterio Mora
Additional contact information
Teresa J. Leo: Departmento de Sistemas Oceánicos y Navales, ETSI Navales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain
Miguel A. Raso: Departmento de Química Física I, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain
Emilio Navarro: Departmento de Motopropulsión y Termofluidodinámica, ETSI Aeronáuticos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain
Eleuterio Mora: Departmento de Ciencias Aplicadas a la Ingeniería Naval, ETSI Navales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain

Energies, 2013, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: The use of alcohol blends in direct alcohol fuel cells may be a more environmentally friendly and less toxic alternative to the use of methanol alone in direct methanol fuel cells. This paper assesses the behaviour of a direct methanol fuel cell fed with aqueous methanol, aqueous ethanol and aqueous methanol/ethanol blends in a long term experimental study followed by modelling of polarization curves. Fuel cell performance is seen to decrease as the ethanol content rises, and subsequent operation with aqueous methanol only partly reverts this loss of performance. It seems that the difference in the oxidation rate of these alcohols may not be the only factor affecting fuel cell performance.

Keywords: direct alcohol fuel cell (DAFC); mixed alcohol fuel; methanol/ethanol blends; DMFC long term experimental study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/6/1/282/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/6/1/282/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:6:y:2013:i:1:p:282-293:d:22755

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().