Alcohols and Bio-alcohols and Bio-alcohols Derived Hydrogen in Fuel Cells

This chapter provides a brief introduction to the use of alcohols, bio-alcohols and bio-alcohol derivatives in fuel cell (FC) technology for energy production processes. Currently, the preferred fuel for FC is hydrogen, mainly produced by the steam reforming of natural gas, as well as methanol and gasoline. The growing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution has moved the interest towards the use of clean or at least renewable sources, such as ethanol and bio-ethanol for hydrogen fuel production. Here we discuss direct and indirect alcohol or bio-alcohol fuel cells, with the intention of providing a brief introduction on the state of art of the principal FC systems for energy production from alcohol and bio-alcohol sources. The configuration of internal reforming, the direct internal reforming (DIR) and indirect internal reforming (IIR) for two types of fuel cells, the Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells (MCFC) and the Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) have been described for indirect bio-alcohol fuel cells. Some features of internal reforming (DIR and IIR) in these two types of cell are presented with respect to the catalytic aspects, with the most important operative parameters being optimized in order to maximize the efficiency of the two systems, i.e. the reaction temperature and the steam/carbon feed ratio. Moreover, a brief introduction to the use of the proton exchange membranes (PEM) and the anion exchange membranes (AEM) in direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs) is also reported.