High Performance Low Temperature Direct Ethanol Fuel Cells

该项目旨在提供高性能的便携式动力燃料电池技术，能够使用含乙醇的燃料，重点是使用生物原料中的乙醇。如果成功，这将允许开发体积功率密度比目前使用甲醇的便携式燃料电池系统更高的便携式燃料电池系统，以及使用环境友好和可持续燃料源的好处。该项目将侧重于确定和开发能够将乙醇完全氧化为二氧化碳的阳极催化剂技术。目前，现有的甲醇氧化催化剂仅将乙醇氧化成乙醛和乙酸，因此没有释放乙醇的全部能量潜力。建议合作伙伴开发能够克服这一限制的催化剂，并在燃料电池层面上加以证明。该项目将使用并建立在合作伙伴和外部来源的最新结果基础上，使用原子模型和模型催化剂表面研究乙醇氧化的基本原理。我们的目标将是设计新的实用催化材料，能够充分氧化乙醇二氧化碳在低过电位。这些新的催化剂将被集成到膜电极组件中，并评估燃料电池的性能。将注意所使用的膜的类型和阴极催化剂层的设计，因为有必要容忍和氧化交叉乙醇。还将研究生物乙醇进料的组成，以确定能够影响燃料电池在真实的应用中的性能的任何杂质。

The project will aim to provide high performance Portable Power Fuel Cell technology capable of operating on ethanol containing fuels with an emphasis on use of ethanol from bio-feedstocks. If successful, this would allow the development of portable fuel cell systems with higher volume power densities than those currently operating on methanol, together with the benefits of using an environmentally benign and sustainable fuel source. The project will focus on the identification and development of anode catalyst technology capable of fully oxidising ethanol to carbon dioxide. At present, current methanol oxidation catalysts only oxidise ethanol to acetaldehyde and acetic acid, thus do not release the full energy potential of ethanol. It is proposed that the partners will develop catalysts that will overcome this limitation and demonstrate it at the fuel cell level. The project will use, and build upon, recent results both from the partners and from external sources to investigate the fundamentals of ethanol oxidation using atomistic modelling and model catalyst surfaces. The objective will be to design new practical catalytic materials capable of fully oxidising ethanol to carbon dioxide at low overpotentials. These new catalysts will then be integrated into membrane electrode assemblies and evaluated for fuel cell performance. Attention will be paid to the type of membrane used and the design of the cathode catalyst layer since it is necessary to tolerate and oxidise cross-over ethanol. The composition of bio-ethanol feeds will also be investigated to identify any impurities capable of affecting fuel cell performance in real life applications.