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US 6,265,093 B1Granted
Direct methanol feed fuel cell and system
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsSubbarao Surampudi, Harvey A. Frank, Sekharipuram R. Narayanan, William Chun, Barbara Jeffries-Nakamura, Andrew Kindler, Gerald Halpert
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Improvements to non acid methanol fuel cells include new formulations for materials. The backing material for the fuel cell electrode is specially treated to improve its characteristics. A special sputtered electrode is formed which is extremely porous. Methanol is delivered to the fuel cell through a filter comprising molecular sieves.
Claims14
A method of delivering methanol fuel to a methanol fuel cell, comprising
- (a) contacting methanol fuel with a fuel filter comprising an input orifice for receiving methanol fuel, molecular sieves for removing impurities from the methanol fuel, and an output orifice for outputting purified methanol, and
- (b) delivering the purified methanol fuel to a methanol fuel cell.
An apparatus comprising:
- (a) a methanol fuel cell, and
- (b) a fuel filter upstream of said methanol fuel cell, said fuel filter comprising an input orifice for receiving methanol fuel, molecular sieves for removing impurities from the methanol fuel, and an output orifice for outputting purified methanol fuel to said methanol fuel cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.