Utilization of methanol for polymer electrolyte fuel cells in mobile systems

Abstract

The constantly growing volume of road traffic requires the introduction of new vehicle propulsion systems with higher efficiency and drastically reduced emission rates. As part of the fuel cell programme of the Research Centre Jülich a vehicle propulsion system with methanol as secondary energy carrier and a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) as the main component for energy conversion is developed. The fuel gas is produced by a heterogeneously catalyzed steam reforming reaction in which methanol is converted to H 2, CO and CO 2. The required energy is provided by the catalytic conversion of methanol for both heating up the system and reforming methanol. The high CO content of the fuel gas requires further processing of the gas or the development of new electrocatalysts for the anode. Various PtRu alloys show promising behaviour as CO-tolerant anodes. The entire fuel cell system is discussed in terms of energy and emission balances. The development of important components is described and experimental results are discussed.