Liang An
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Title: Carbon-neutral energy conversion technology: direct ethanol fuel cells
Biography
Biography: Liang An
Abstract
Direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFC), which promise to be a clean and efficient energy production technology, have recently attracted worldwide attention, primarily because ethanol is a carbon-neutral, sustainable fuel and possesses many unique physicochemical properties including high energy density and ease of transportation, storage as well as handling. However, conventional DEFCs that use acid proton exchange membranes (PEM) and precious metal catalysts result in rather low performance. In our research, we used alkaline anion exchange membranes (AEM) as the ion conductor in DEFCs. The change from the acid membrane to an alkaline one led to a significant performance boost: the power density increases from 30 mW cm-2 to 90 mW cm -2 . In addition, we developed a novel hybrid DEFC system, which consists of an alkaline anode and an acid cathode. Our unique design results in a power density of 240 mW cm-2 . To further optimize and improve performance, we developed an integrated model for the fuel cell system. By doing so, the power density of DEFCs now is as high as 360 mW cm-2 . This high performance is attributed not only to the unique design, but also to the use of the integrated model.