Hydrogen Production on an Ethanol Dehydrogenation Reactor Coupled to a Conventional PEMFC

Abstract

On board hydrogen storage has become a key factor for the technical viability of fuel cell driven electric or hybrid vehicles. In this work we present results of a system which comprises an ethanol dehydrogenation catalytic unit coupled to a conventional proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Ethanol is first dehydrogenated over a Cu/ZrO2 catalyst bed, and then the gas effluent is trapped in a simple cold condenser enabling a gas current rich in H2 to feed a PEMFC. Chronoamperometry (at a cell potential of 700 mV) showed apparent stability of the cell performance at about 300 mA cm-2 (with H2 produced from ethanol reaction) whilst at 550 mA cm-2 with pure H2. Maximum cell power density of our integrated system achieved almost 70% of the performance of the cell powered with pure H2.