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Development of a Direct Alcohol Alkaline Fuel Cell Stack
Author(s) -
Gaurava D.,
Verma A.,
Sharma D. K.,
Basu S.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
fuel cells
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1615-6854
pISSN - 1615-6846
DOI - 10.1002/fuce.200900039
Subject(s) - stack (abstract data type) , alkaline fuel cell , fuel cells , alcohol fuel , alcohol , chemistry , chemical engineering , materials science , computer science , methanol , organic chemistry , engineering , ion exchange , ion , programming language
Abstract Direct alcohol alkaline fuel cells (DAAFC) are one of the potential fuel cell types in the category of low temperature fuel cells, which could become an energy source for portable electronic equipment in future. In the present study, a simple DAAFC stack has been developed and studied to evaluate the maximum performance for a given fuel (methanol or ethanol) and electrolyte (KOH) at various concentrations and temperatures. The open circuit voltage of the stack of four cells was nearly 4.0 V. A particular combination, 2 M fuel (methanol or ethanol) and 3 M KOH, results in maximum power density of the stack. The maximum power density obtained from the DAAFC stack (25 °C) was 50 mW cm –2 at 20 mA cm –2 for methanol and 17 mA cm –2 for ethanol. The stack power density corroborated with that obtained from a single cell, indicating there was no further loss in the stack.