DMFC for Portable Applications

The current industrial technology for powering portable electronics such as Laptops, cell phones, and mp3 players is based on lithium-ion batteries.  The current battery technologies have several drawbacks: they have limited duration of operation after charging and require a long period to recharge, their lifespan is only about 2 years, or 1200 cycles [1] and their chemistry is unsafe in that if overcharged they can reach a thermal runaway, resulting in an exploding battery.  They also have the disadvantage of requiring an AC power supply to recharge.  As modern batteries approach their theoretical limits, a new solution must be found for powering tomorrow’s portable electronics.  Recent research efforts show that direct methanol fuel cells can replace lithium ion batteries.  The main advantage is that the energy density of methanol is relatively high, and by the nature of the energy storage system it would be “re-fuelable” allowing a virtually unlimited active run time.  This, coupled with the low price and availability of methanol, would lead to a power generation system that could be cheap, powerful, and practical.

The objective of this research is to develop, fabricate and demonstrate a working model of a passive direct methanol fuel cell system that can match the power requirements needed to run a modern day laptop.