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US 2009/0214905 A1Published application
Direct methanol fuel cell operable with neat methanol
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsSekharipuram R. Narayanan, Andrew Kindler, Thomas I. Valdez
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Abstract
A fuel cell system running on direct neat methanol. Back diffusion of water from the cathode to the anode is sufficiently high so that water is not accumulated at the cathode, thereby leading to fuel cell systems without the need for a pump system to remove circulate water from the cathode to the anode. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
Claims12
An apparatus comprising:
- a fuel cell comprising an anode electrode;
- a container comprising neat methanol;
- and
- a fuel delivery system coupled to the anode electrode to provide the neat methanol to the anode electrode.
1 more element
A method comprising:
- evaporating water from a cathode electrode of a fuel cell;
- and
- providing neat methanol to an anode electrode of the fuel cell such that water migration from the cathode electrode to the anode electrode to provide electro-osmotic drag of protons is balanced by water evaporation at the cathode electrode and back diffusion of water from the cathode electrode to the anode electrode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.