An alkaline direct ethanol fuel cell with a cation exchange membrane

A barrier that limits the performance of anion exchange membrane (AEM) direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) is that state-of-the-art AEMs do not allow the fuel cell to operate at high temperatures (<60 degrees C). Here we describe an alkaline DEFC that employs a cation exchange membrane (CEM) and show that this type of CEM-DEFC can stably discharge with a high power density at an operating temperature as high as 90 degrees C.