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Fuel Cell
Published in Ramendra Sundar Dey, Taniya Purkait, Navpreet Kamboj, Manisha Das, Carbonaceous Materials and Future Energy, 2019
Ramendra Sundar Dey, Taniya Purkait, Navpreet Kamboj, Manisha Das
According to the choice of electrolyte and fuel, fuel cells are classified into six major categories as follows (Table 7.1): Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) Direct formic acid fuel cell (DFAFC)Direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC)Alkaline fuel cell (AFC) Proton ceramic fuel cell (PCFC)Direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC)Phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC)Molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC)Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC)Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC)
Carbonaceous Nanostructured Composites for Electrochemical Power Sources
Published in Mahmood Aliofkhazraei, Advances in Nanostructured Composites, 2019
Sethu Sundar Pethaiah, J. Anandha Raj, Mani Ulaganathan
Fuel cells are energy conversion devices which convert the chemical energy of the fuel directly into electrical energy, heat and water as a by-product. Generally, fuel cells are classified based on the type of electrolyte and fuel used, which includes Alkaline Fuel Cells (AFCs), Low Temperature Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (LT-PEMFCs), High Temperature Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (HT-PEMFCs), Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells (PAFCs), Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells (MCFCs) and Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs). Further classifications includes direct ethanol fuel cell, biological fuel cells, composite solid oxide/molten carbonate fuel cells, direct ammonia fuel cells and direct carbon fuel cell, which differs from above mentioned types. The electric-energy converting efficiency of fuel cells typically varies from 40 to 60% and about 30–40% of the energy is available as heat (Giddey et al. 2012). Among the above different types of fuel cells, Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) have large potential for commercialization and its applications range from portable and transportation to large-scale stationary power systems (Wee 2007).
Nanotechnology and Energy
Published in Stephen L. Gillett, Nanotechnology and the Resource Fallacy, 2018
Because ethanol is expected to be an abundant product of next‐generation waste biomass processing (Box 5.8), another “wish list” item would be a direct‐ethanol fuel cell. It would also have the advantage of lower toxicity than methanol, or liquid hydrocarbons for that matter, and such cells continue to be the subiect of much research.29 Moreover, purifying ethanol derived from fermentation is a maior expense for ethanol to be used as fuel. Indeed, if purification is carried out thermally (!), by distillation, there may be a net energy cost.30 This issue would vanish if dilute ethanol could be used directly in a fuel cell. Indeed, an ethanol‐ water mixture could reform at the anode, as in a DMFC. As with higher hydrocarbon fuels, however, the carbon‐carbon bond is difficult to deave,31 even when temperatures > 100oC are
Performance of passive direct formate fuel cells using chitosan as an anode binder
Published in International Journal of Green Energy, 2023
DLFCs can be further divided into passive and active fuel cells according to the reactant supply modes. Because incorporating external components, such as pumps and blowers, to force fuel and/or oxidant to flow over the fuel cell electrodes is necessary to generate electricity, active DLFCs have complex and bulky configurations. On the other hand, they can produce high current for efficient reactant supply and can be favorable to the application when high power output is needed. In contrast, passive DLFCs have simpler configurations compared to active DLFCs as the reactants are supplied to the catalyst layer on both electrodes by capillary action or diffusion without using auxiliary devices (Alias et al. 2020; Cao et al. 2010; Carneiro et al. 2021; Lee et al. 2017; Obeisun et al. 2014). Considering the application of DLFCs as a portable power source, passive DLFCs would be a promising product compared to active DLFCs as long as their performance is improved. Numerous studies on the development and test of passive DLFCs have been published recently (Chen and Zhao 2007). Li and Zhao (2016) developed a passive air-breathing direct ethanol fuel cell stack with two single cells in series connection to drive a toy car. The stack achieved a maximum power density of 38 mW/cm2 and powered a toy car continuously at a speed of 0.52 m/s for an hour. Ghayor et al. (2010) designed and fabricated active and passive micro-direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) made of stainless steel with transverse and parallel flow fields. Their results obtained by 3-D numerical simulations showed that the maximum power density reached 170 mW/cm2 and 85 mW/cm2 for active and passive fuel cells, respectively, at 60°C. Achmad et al. (2011) developed a passive dual six-sided DMFC assembled in series and tested it on various cell phone chargers, PDAs, and media players. Nafion 117 membrane was used as the polymer electrolyte of DMFCs having an active electrode area of 4 cm2 on which 8 mg/cm2 Pt-Ru and 8 mg/cm2 Pt were coated as anode and cathode catalysts, respectively. An output power of 600 mW and maximum power density of 25 mW/cm2 at room temperature (25°C–27°C) were reported. Falcão et al. (2015) found that optimal micro-DMFC can be achieved when the Nafion 117 membrane was sandwiched between two electrodes with catalyst loadings of 3 mg Pt-Ru/cm2 and 0.5 mg Pt/cm2 on anode and cathode, respectively. The produced maximum power density at methanol concentration of 3 M was 19.2 mW/cm2. Su, Pan, and An (2019) tested passive air-breathing direct formate fuel cells (DFFCs) with pre-treated Nafion 211 to transport cations. The results showed that the maximum power densities of the DFFC were 10.8 and 16.6 mW/cm2 at 23οC and 60°C, respectively; it produced a current density of 4 mA/cm2 at 0.6 V for 20 hr stably when feeding liquid fuel containing 5 M HCOONa in 3 M NaOH.