Methanol reformate treatment in a PEM fuel cell-reactor

Abstract

The treatment of methanol reformate, containing up to 2500 ppm CO, by the anode of a PEM fuel cell, operating as a preferential oxidation (PROX) reactor, was investigated in order to examine the possibility of electrochemically promoting the water–gas-shift (WGS) reaction and thus making the gas mixture suitable for anodic oxidation. It was found that the electrochemical promotion effect plays a significant role in a normal fuel cell operation (air at the cathode) but not in a hydrogen pumping operation (H 2 at the cathode). This implies that the role of oxygen crossover in the electropromotion (EP) of the WGS reaction and in the CO oxidation is vital. During fuel cell operation, the increase in the rate of CO consumption over a Pt/C anode is 2.5 times larger than the electrochemical rate, I/2 F of CO consumption, while for oxygen bleeding conditions (fuel mixture + 1% O 2 at the anode) the increase is up to five times larger than I/2 F, i.e. the Faradaic efficiency is up to 5. This shows that the catalytic properties of the Pt anode are significantly modified by varying catalyst potential and by the extent of O 2 crossover. The effect of temperature, gas composition, membrane thickness and Pt anode alloying with Cu was studied. It was found that the rate of CO consumption is significantly enhanced by increasing T, p H 2 and increasing O 2 crossover rate. Also the Faradaic efficiency reaches even higher values (up to 9) when using PtCu/C anodes. However, the Faradaic efficiency drops in general below 100% at high current densities and CO conversion levels.