Ethanol Powered Fuel Cells - bringing fuel cell technology closer

Where the Paths Merge: Ethanol-Powered Fuel Cells

Fuel cells require a source of hydrogen to produce electricity. But
hydrogen is difficult to transport and store. As a result,
applications that use large volumes of fuel generally require onsite
hydrogen generation plants, as described in Figure 3 above.
Moreover, in the US today, there is no hydrogen infrastructure to
support a growing fuel cell market.

Ethanol is a hydrogen-rich liquid, which overcomes both the
storage and infrastructure challenges of hydrogen for fuel cell
applications. There are no technical barriers to the use of ethanol
in fuel cells. Because ethanol is far easier to transport and store
than hydrogen, fuel reforming – which uses a chemical process to
extract hydrogen from fuel – offers a practical solution to the
challenge of providing hydrogen to fuel cells onboard vehicles or
for remote or stationary applications. In addition, ethanol is easier
to reform than gasoline and most alternative fuels because of its
relatively simple molecular structure.

In California, industry and government teamed to form the
California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP) to conduct near-term
demonstrations of fuel cell vehicles. A major focus of the
partnership is to evaluate and demonstrate the viability of the
alternative fuel infrastructure technology for fuel cell vehicles.


The fuels assessment study released by the Partnership in October
2001 presented the following conclusions about ethanol as a fuel
for fuel cell vehicles:

· A “major advantage” of ethanol is its compatibility with
gasoline reformer technology and its flexibility to be used
neat (i.e., only ethanol) or in a range of gasoline/ethanol
blends.

· Flexibility, combined with ethanol’s compatibility with the
gasoline infrastructure, means that ethanol can be
optimized regionally and according to ethanol economics
and availability vs. gasoline. This is the only proposed fuel
cell vehicle fueling strategy that does not require the
commitment of major infrastructure investments to a
single fuel.

· An ethanol reformer could be simpler, more reliable, and
less costly than a gasoline/multifuel reformer, increasing
ethanol’s attractiveness as a neat fuel for fuel cell vehicles.

As the favorable cost, environmental, and energy security benefits
of using ethanol in fuel cells have achieved greater recognition,
industry has followed suit by taking action.

For example:

· US DOE and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs
partnered with Caterpillar, Nuvera Fuel Cells, and Williams Bio-Energy to design,
fabricate, and demonstrate the nation’s first commercial ethanol-powered fuel cell
system. The 13kW ethanol-fueled PEM stationary fuel cell system will power
William’s security office and visitor’s center in Pekin, Illinois.

· PSA Peugeot Citroën has made biofuels one of its main avenues of research.
Produced from grain or sugar beet crops in the case of ethanol, or from oil-bearing
plants such as rapeseed and soybeans in the case of oil methyl esters, biofuels are
essentially renewable energy sources. In addition to their substantial contribution to
attenuating the greenhouse effect, these fuels offer environmentally friendly
performance, notably by reducing particle emissions.

Such liquid-fueled fuel cell vehicles will take most of this decade to commercialize.