High Performance Low Temperature Direct Ethanol Fuel Cells

该项目的目标是提供高性能的便携式燃料电池技术，能够对含乙醇的燃料进行操作，重点是从生物原料中使用乙醇。如果成功，这将使便携式燃料电池系统的开发具有比目前使用甲醇的系统更高的体积功率密度，以及使用环保和可持续燃料来源的好处。该项目将专注于鉴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为乙醛和醋酸，没有充分释放乙醇的能量潜力。据提议，合作伙伴将开发能够克服这一限制的催化剂，并在燃料电池层面进行演示。该项目将利用来自合作伙伴和外部来源的最新结果，并在此基础上，使用原子模拟和催化剂表面模型来研究乙醇氧化的基本原理。其目标将是设计新的实用催化材料，能够在低过电位下将乙醇完全氧化为二氧化碳。然后，这些新催化剂将被集成到膜电极组件中，并对燃料电池的性能进行评估。应注意所用膜的类型和阴极催化层的设计，因为容忍和氧化交叉乙醇是必要的。还将调查生物乙醇饲料的组成，以确定在实际应用中是否有可能影响燃料电池性能的杂质。

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.