The Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell: a Challenge to Convert Bioethanol Cleanly into Electric Energy
The Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell: a Challenge to Convert Bioethanol Cleanly into Electric Energy
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直接乙醇燃料电池：将生物乙醇清洁地转化为电能的挑战
DOI：
10.1002/9783527625413.ch1
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发表时间：
2009
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
J. Leger
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
C. Lamy;C. Coutanceau;J. Leger
燃料电池（FC）于1839年由威廉·格罗夫爵士在英国发现，是一种直接转化燃料（氢、天然气、甲醇、乙醇、碳氢化合物等）燃烧热的电化学装置。电[1]。燃料在阳极被电化学氧化，不产生任何污染物（只有水和/或二氧化碳被释放到大气中），而氧化剂（空气中的氧气）在阴极被还原。这一过程不遵循卡诺定理，因此预计会有更高的能源效率：电能的40-50%，总能量的80-85%（电能和热量）。现在人们对开发具有多种应用的不同类型的燃料电池有很大的兴趣（除了在空间计划中的第一个和最发达的应用）取决于其标称功率：固定发电厂（100 kW-10 MW），动力传动系电源（20-200 kW）用于电动汽车（公共汽车、卡车和个人轿车）、建筑物和住宅的热电联产（5-20千瓦）、辅助动力装置（1-100千瓦），用于不同用途（汽车、飞机、航天发射器、空间站、不间断电源、远程电源等）和便携式电子设备（1- 100 W），例如，手机、计算机、摄像机[2，3]。对于许多应用，氢是最方便的燃料，但它不是主要燃料，因此它必须从不同的来源生产：水、化石燃料（天然气、碳氢化合物等）、此外，氢的清洁生产（包括二氧化碳生产的限制）及其储存和大规模分配的困难仍然是此类技术发展的严重限制[2，3]。在这种情况下，其他燃料，特别是那些在环境温度和压力下为液体的燃料，如酒精，由于其易于处理和分配而更方便。因此，醇类已开始被视为有价值的替代燃料，因为它们具有高能量密度（6-9 kW h kg/m2，相比之下为33 kW h kg/m2
Discovered in England in 1839 by Sir William Grove, a fuel cell (FC) is an electrochemical device which transforms directly the heat of combustion of a fuel (hydrogen, natural gas, methanol, ethanol, hydrocarbons, etc.) into electricity [1]. The fuel is electrochemically oxidized at the anode, without producing any pollutants (only water and/or carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere), whereas the oxidant (oxygen from the air) is reduced at the cathode. This process does not follow Carnot s theorem, so that higher energy efficiencies are expected: 40–50% in electrical energy, 80–85% in total energy (electricity þ heat production). There is now a great interest in developing different kinds of fuel cells with several applications (in addition to the first and most developed application in space programs) depending on their nominal power: stationary electric power plants (100 kW–10 MW), power train sources (20–200 kW) for the electrical vehicle (bus, truck and individual car), electricity and heat co-generation for buildings and houses (5–20 kW), auxiliary power units (1–100 kW) for different uses (automobiles, aircraft, space launchers, space stations, uninterruptible power supply, remote power, etc.) and portable electronic devices (1–100W), for example, cell phones, computers, camcorders [2, 3].For many applications, hydrogen is the most convenient fuel, but it is not a primary fuel, so that it has to be produced from different sources: water, fossil fuels (natural gas, hydrocarbons, etc.), biomass resources and so on. Moreover, the clean production of hydrogen (including the limitation of carbon dioxide production) and the difficulties with its storage and large-scale distribution are still strong limitations for the development of such techniques [2, 3]. In this context, other fuels, particularly those, like alcohols, which are liquid at ambient temperature and pressure, are more convenient due to the ease of their handling and distribution. Therefore, alcohols have begun to be considered as valuable alternative fuels, because they have a high energy density (6–9 kW h kg À1, compared with 33 kW h kg À1