Development of an internal reforming alcohol fuel cell: Concept, challenges and opportunities

The complexity of the balance of plant of a fuel cell-fuel processor unit challenges the design and development of compact and user friendly fuel cell systems. Many of these drawbacks could be alleviated by incorporation of a methanol reforming catalyst into the anodic compartment (bi-functional anode) of a high-temperature, polymer electrolyte fuel cell (HT-PEMFC), so that methanol reforming takes place inside the fuel cell stack (internal reforming). The development of an internal reforming alcohol fuel cell (IRAFC) poses an ambitious technological and research challenge, which requires the effective combination of various technological approaches as regards materials development, chemical reaction engineering and stack design. It aims at opening new scientific and engineering prospects, which may allow easier penetration of the fuel cell system in the energy market. This paper particularly emphasizes technological aspects of the IRAFC unit and reports on preliminary results obtained from single-cell laboratory prototypes. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.