A novel aluminium-air semi-fuel cell operating with hydrogen peroxide co-generation

An original Al-air semi-fuel cell (SFC) system, operating with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) co-generation was developed. The cell design was optimized and operating conditions were selected in the comparative study of different of anion-exchange MA-40, AMI 7001S and cation-exchange MK-40, NAFION 117 membranes, gas-diffusion electrodes (GDE) Black Pearls 2000 (BP 2000), Vulcan XC-72 (XC-72), nature and concentration of electrolytes (NaOH, KOH and NaCl). Their influence on electric characteristics (current density and generated power) and current efficiency of H2O2 generation was studied. The best results were achieved were using BP 2000 GDE in the SFC divided by anion-exchange membrane (AEM) with 6M KOH as an electrolyte. However, some acceptable results were achieved even using dilute chloride solutions. Finally, the scale-up experiments showed that the specific electric characteristics of the fuel cell (FC) enhanced at 15-fold increase of the electrode area. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.