Basque Country: Catalysts enhance the prospects for methanol fuel cells

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Research chemist José Barranco of the University of the Basque Country, Spain, has developed new materials that enable the manufacture of cheaper and more efficient methanol fuel cells.

Fuel cells need advances in a number of fields, including the development of catalysts to accelerate the chemical reaction required for electricity to be produced, if they are to compete among alternative energies.

Most current research is focused on hydrogen fuel cells, whose biggest advantage is that they do not generate toxic gases, with water vapour the only waste product. But hydrogen is  expensive to produce and to distribute. Moreover, its energy density is less than that of methanol, meaning that the hydrogen has to be kept and stored under conditions of very high pressure (more than 800 bars) in order to obtain the same energy from a similar amount of fuel.

Barranco’s research focused on a fundamental problem of the existing platinum catalysts that are used in the electro-oxidation of methanol: the reaction produces carbon monoxide, that adheres to the metal and inhibits its catalysing capacity, halting the reaction.

The researcher has made alloys that enable the proportion of platinum to be reduced to 1 percent. The alloys convert carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide ,which does not bind to the catalyst.

This does mean, though, that the methanol fuel cell will emit a small quantity of CO2. According to Barranco, this must be seen in the context of the reduction in production of CO2 from petrol. According to a study by the American Methanol Institute, by the year 2020, there will be 40 million cars powered by methanol fuel cells, cutting CO2 emissions from petrol by 104 million tonnes.