GES Delivers 50W Direct Methanol Fuel Cell System

July 30, 2002 — Newton, MA — Giner Electrochemical Systems, LLC, (GES, www.ginerinc.com), an electrochemical research and development company, announced today that it has delivered a complete liquid feed direct methanol fuel cell (LFDMFC) system providing a 50 W/12 V output to the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Adelphi, MD. This lightweight, compact, portable device was fabricated under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract. It incorporates many of the inventions and technological advances made by GES on various LFDMFC programs funded by DARPA during the last ten years.

A LFDMFC stack utilizing a low-methanol crossover membrane developed by GES under SBIR/ARL funding supplied all system power. According to Jack Kosek, Director of Energy Conversion Programs at GES, "The innovative membrane, in addition to reducing methanol crossover by over 60% compared to previous membranes, has demonstrated a long shelf life and the ability to provide state of the art LFDMFC performance. Development of reduced methanol crossover membranes directly improves the overall system efficiency."

“This device is extremely lightweight and is poised to satisfy many of the military's portable power requirements. Portable auxiliary power requires a rapidly refuelable, reliable, and rugged system. We believe that the DMFC is uniquely suited to fill this need”, said Tony Vaccaro, President of GES.

The DMFC system provides 50 W during normal use, and has a maximum power output of 90W. The use of off-the-shelf components resulted in a package with dimensions of 45 x 33 x 17 cm (20 x 13 x 7 inches) and a weight of 6 kilograms (13 pounds). Optimization of system components is expected to result in a 50% reduction in size and weight. The system is entirely self-contained, with enough on-board methanol storage for 800 W-hr of operation. The system is approximately one-third the weight of a 150 W DMFC system GES delivered to ARL in October 2001. The heart of the system, a LFDMFC stack, is based on GES' proprietary molded graphite bipolar plate technology and uses membrane-electrode assemblies specifically developed by GES to exploit the advantages of the new membrane. The stack provided an average cell voltage of 464 +/- 12 mV at 100 mA/cm during 60°C testing using low-pressure air, prior to insertion into the complete system.

Contact Information:

Cecelia C. Cropley ( )

Director, Systems Engineering

Phone: (781) 529-0506; Fax: (781) 893-6470