Alkaline direct alcohol fuel cells tests

Abstract The faster kinetics of the alcohol oxidation reaction in alkaline direct alcohol fuel cells (ADAFCs), opening up the possibility of using less expensive metal catalysts, as silver, nickel, and palladium, makes the alkaline direct alcohol fuel cell a potentially low-cost technology compared to acid direct alcohol fuel cell technology, which employs platinum catalysts. In this work an overview of catalysts for ADAFCs, and of testing of ADAFCs, fuelled with methanol, ethanol, and ethylene glycol, formed by these materials, is presented. 

In this work an overview of anode catalysts for alkaline direct alcohol fuel cells, and reports of the testing of these materials in alkaline direct alcohol fuel cells fuelled with Ci (methanol) and C2 (ethanol and ethylene glycol) alcohols, is presented. 

The lifetime test of direct alcohol and sodium borohydride alkaline fuel cell was conducted and the results pertaining to this is shown in Fig. 30. The useful operating lifetime of 380, 400, 510 h was found for methanol, ethanol and sodium borohydride fuels, respectively. The deterioration of performance of fuel cell may be because of the carbonate precipitate, oxide layer formation and adsorbed intermediate species on catalyst surface. The used up electrodes could be regenerated by treating the electrode with hydrochloric acid. The acid treatment might have removed the carbonates and other species from the electrode. The treated electrodes could regain more than 80% of the catalytic activity. The maximum power density with 2 M fuel and 3 M KOH obtained was 21.5 mW cm at 33 mA cm of current density for sodium borohydride at 60°C, whereas, methanol and ethanol produce 15 and 16 mW cm" of maximum power... 

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