USING DIRECT ALCOHOL FUEL CELLS TO EXTRACT ELECTRICITY FROM ONGOING FERMENTATIONS

摘要

Biomass is a potential sustainable energy source that is widely available from waste streams or native ecosystems. However, capturing it as an energy source is challenging, especially for electricity generation, because it is often present in dilute streams or as hard to use substrates. One promising approach is the conversion of biomass to ethanol by yeast and other microorganisms; this bioethanol can be used to produce power in a variety of devices, including direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs). These fuel cells provide clean, quiet power generation and can operate at room temperature on the dilute ethanol streams commonly produced from the fermentation of biomass. As such there has been considerable interest in using bioderived ethanol in DAFCs but ethanol from fermentations is often extensively purified (e.g. distilled) because it is difficult to use this ethanol directly due to various chemicals in the fermentation poisoning the fuel cells. To fully take advantage of the benefits of DAFCs, it would be beneficial to separate ethanol from fermentations with minimal parasitic power losses.