Alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cells for cogeneration of electricity and valuable chemicals

Abstract Alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AAEMFCs) have received ever-increasing attentions due to the enhanced electrochemical kinetics and the absence of precious metal electrocatalysts, and thus great progress has been made in recent years. The alkaline anion exchange membrane based direct alcohol fuel cells, one type of alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cells utilizing liquid alcohols as fuel that can be obtained from renewable biomass feedstocks, is another attractive point due to its ability to provide electricity with cogeneration of valuable chemicals. Significant development has been made to improve the selectivity towards high added-value chemicals and power output in the past few years. This review article provides a general description of this emerging technology, including fuel-cell setup and potential reaction routes, summarizes the products, performance, and system designs, as well as introduces the application of this concept in the removal of heavy-metal ions from the industrial wastewater. In addition, the remaining challenges and perspectives are also highlighted.

[1]  K. Sun,et al.  Selective Oxidation of 1,2-Propanediol in Alkaline Anion-Exchange Membrane Electrocatalytic Flow Reactors: Experimental and DFT Investigations , 2015 .

[2]  P. Serp,et al.  Pd and Pt–Ru anode electrocatalysts supported on multi-walled carbon nanotubes and their use in passive and active direct alcohol fuel cells with an anion-exchange membrane (alcohol = methanol, ethanol, glycerol) , 2009 .

[3]  Zhaolin Liu,et al.  Copper‐Modified Gold Nanoparticles as Highly Selective Catalysts for Glycerol Electro‐Oxidation in Alkaline Solution , 2016 .

[4]  T. Zhao,et al.  Alkaline direct oxidation fuel cell with non-platinum catalysts capable of converting glucose to electricity at high power output , 2011 .

[5]  Xiaohui Yan,et al.  The dual role of hydrogen peroxide in fuel cells , 2015 .

[6]  T. Napporn,et al.  Effect of Co‐catalyst on the Selective Electrooxidation of Glycerol over Ruthenium‐based Nanomaterials , 2017 .

[7]  Wenzheng Li,et al.  Carbon nanotube supported PdAg nanoparticles for electrocatalytic oxidation of glycerol in anion exchange membrane fuel cells , 2017 .

[8]  Rong Chen,et al.  A novel direct ethanol fuel cell with high power density , 2011 .

[9]  S. Baranton,et al.  A Systematic in Situ Infrared Study of the Electrooxidation of C3 Alcohols on Carbon-Supported Pt and Pt–Bi Catalysts , 2016 .

[10]  T. Abe,et al.  Electro-oxidation of methanol and ethylene glycol on platinum in alkaline solution: Poisoning effects and product analysis , 2005 .

[11]  Zhenhua Chai,et al.  Mathematical modeling of alkaline direct ethanol fuel cells , 2013 .

[12]  Chunsheng Wang,et al.  Fuel cell durability enhancement by crosslinking alkaline anion exchange membrane electrolyte , 2012 .

[13]  V. Shahi,et al.  Highly stable self-crosslinked anion conductive ionomers for fuel cell applications , 2014 .

[14]  M. Simões,et al.  Enhancement of catalytic properties for glycerol electrooxidation on Pt and Pd nanoparticles induced by Bi surface modification , 2011 .

[15]  J. Pelton,et al.  Selective chromium(VI) ligands identified using combinatorial peptoid libraries. , 2013, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[16]  T. Zhao,et al.  A bi-functional cathode structure for alkaline-acid direct ethanol fuel cells , 2011 .

[17]  Wenzheng Li,et al.  Simultaneous Generation of Mesoxalic Acid and Electricity from Glycerol on a Gold Anode Catalyst in Anion‐Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells , 2012 .

[18]  Xianda Sun,et al.  A Sodium-Ion-Conducting Direct Formate Fuel Cell: Generating Electricity and Producing Base. , 2017, Angewandte Chemie.

[19]  T. Zhao,et al.  A low-cost, high-performance zinc–hydrogen peroxide fuel cell , 2015 .

[20]  Fengxiang Zhang,et al.  A mini-review on anion exchange membranes for fuel cell applications: Stability issue and addressing strategies , 2015 .

[21]  Z. Chai,et al.  Mathematical modeling of an anion-exchange membrane water electrolyzer for hydrogen production , 2014 .

[22]  T. Zhao,et al.  An alkaline direct ethanol fuel cell with a cation exchange membrane , 2011 .

[23]  J. Peliska,et al.  Inhibition of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase-catalyzed DNA strand transfer reactions by 4-chlorophenylhydrazone of mesoxalic acid. , 2000, Biochemistry.

[24]  Wenzheng Li,et al.  Selective electro-conversion of glycerol to glycolate on carbon nanotube supported gold catalyst , 2012 .

[25]  Wenzheng Li,et al.  Carbon supported Ag nanoparticles with different particle size as cathode catalysts for anion exchange membrane direct glycerol fuel cells , 2014 .

[26]  Mei Lee Ooi,et al.  CO2-Free Power Generation on an Iron Group Nanoalloy Catalyst via Selective Oxidation of Ethylene Glycol to Oxalic Acid in Alkaline Media , 2014, Scientific Reports.

[27]  P. Fornasiero,et al.  Electrooxidation of ethylene glycol and glycerol on Pd-(Ni-Zn)/C anodes in direct alcohol fuel cells. , 2013, ChemSusChem.

[28]  Rong Chen,et al.  Direct formate fuel cells: A review , 2016 .

[29]  David Sinton,et al.  Microfluidic fuel cells: A review , 2009 .

[30]  T. Napporn,et al.  Studies of the reaction products resulted from glycerol electrooxidation on Ni-based materials in alkaline medium , 2014 .

[31]  Liang An,et al.  Carbon-neutral sustainable energy technology: Direct ethanol fuel cells , 2015 .

[32]  Wenzheng Li,et al.  Electrocatalytic selective oxidation of glycerol to tartronate on Au/C anode catalysts in anion exchange membrane fuel cells with electricity cogeneration , 2014 .

[33]  Dennis Y.C. Leung,et al.  Hydrodynamic focusing in microfluidic membraneless fuel cells: Breaking the trade-off between fuel u , 2011 .

[34]  A. Hubin,et al.  Electrochemical characterisation of a microfluidic reactor for cogeneration of chemicals and electricity , 2016 .

[35]  K. Sun,et al.  Selective electro-oxidation of glycerol to tartronate or mesoxalate on Au nanoparticle catalyst via electrode potential tuning in anion-exchange membrane electro-catalytic flow reactor , 2014 .

[36]  T. Fujigaya,et al.  Palladium-Based Anion-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Using KOH-Doped Polybenzimidazole as the Electrolyte. , 2014, ChemPlusChem.

[37]  J. Leger,et al.  Ethylene glycol electrooxidation in alkaline medium at multi-metallic Pt based catalysts , 2007 .

[38]  V. Selvaraj,et al.  Development of non-covalent ternary polymer–CNT composites as a novel supporting material for electrooxidation of glycerol , 2015 .

[39]  A. Singh,et al.  Hydrogen energy future with formic acid: a renewable chemical hydrogen storage system , 2016 .

[40]  Y. Akanuma,et al.  Historical changes in diabetes therapy in Japan. , 1994, Diabetes research and clinical practice.

[41]  Stève Baranton,et al.  Development of Bismuth-Modified PtPd Nanocatalysts for the Electrochemical Reforming of Polyols into Hydrogen and Value-Added Chemicals , 2016 .

[42]  Tianshou Zhao,et al.  Transport phenomena in alkaline direct ethanol fuel cells for sustainable energy production , 2017 .

[43]  F. Javier Rodríguez Varela,et al.  Synthesis and Evaluation of Highly Tolerant Pd Electrocatalysts as Cathodes in Direct Ethylene Glycol Fuel Cells (DEGFC) , 2009 .

[44]  T. Zhao,et al.  A high-performance ethanol–hydrogen peroxide fuel cell , 2014 .

[45]  G. Sheng,et al.  Enhanced Cr(VI) removal by using the mixture of pillared bentonite and zero-valent iron , 2012 .

[46]  Plamen Atanassov,et al.  Anion-exchange membranes in electrochemical energy systems , 2014 .

[47]  Wenzheng Li,et al.  Electrocatalytic oxidation of glycerol on Pt/C in anion-exchange membrane fuel cell: Cogeneration of electricity and valuable chemicals , 2012 .

[48]  Stève Baranton,et al.  Electro-oxidation of glycerol at Pd based nano-catalysts for an application in alkaline fuel cells for chemicals and energy cogeneration , 2010 .

[49]  Wenzheng Li,et al.  PdAg/CNT catalyzed alcohol oxidation reaction for high-performance anion exchange membrane direct alcohol fuel cell (alcohol=methanol, ethanol, ethylene glycol and glycerol) , 2016 .

[50]  Z. Chai,et al.  Modeling of the mixed potential in hydrogen peroxide-based fuel cells , 2014 .

[51]  Jamie P. Kizewski,et al.  Membrane and Electrode Materials for Alkaline Membrane Fuel Cells , 2008 .

[52]  Wenzheng Li,et al.  Electricity storage in biofuels: selective electrocatalytic reduction of levulinic acid to valeric acid or γ-valerolactone. , 2013, ChemSusChem.

[53]  A. Roberts,et al.  Alkaline ionomer with tuneable water uptakes for electrochemical energy technologies , 2011 .

[54]  S. Baranton,et al.  How do Bi-modified palladium nanoparticles work towards glycerol electrooxidation? An in situ FTIR study , 2015 .

[55]  Whangi Kim,et al.  Anion conductive poly(tetraphenyl phthalazine ether sulfone) containing tetra quaternary ammonium hydroxide for alkaline fuel cell application , 2013 .

[56]  E. Cairns,et al.  Review-Recent Progress in Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Suitable for Alkaline Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells , 2015 .

[57]  Kenneth I. Ozoemena,et al.  Nanomaterials for Fuel Cell Catalysis , 2016 .

[58]  Qing Du,et al.  Three-dimensional multiphase modeling of alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cell , 2014 .

[59]  Claudio Bianchini,et al.  Palladium-based electrocatalysts for alcohol oxidation in half cells and in direct alcohol fuel cells. , 2009, Chemical reviews.

[60]  T. Zhao,et al.  Agar chemical hydrogel electrode binder for fuel-electrolyte-fed fuel cells , 2013 .

[61]  Zhaolin Liu,et al.  Pd Nanoparticles on Carbon Nitride–Graphene for the Selective Electro-Oxidation of Glycerol in Alkaline Solution , 2015 .

[62]  K. Ozoemena,et al.  Electro-oxidation of ethylene glycol and glycerol at palladium-decorated FeCo@Fe core-shell nanocatalysts for alkaline direct alcohol fuel cells : functionalized MWCNT supports and impact on product selectivity , 2015 .

[63]  B. James.  Peer reviewed: the challenge of remediating chromium-contaminated soil. , 1996, Environmental science & technology.

[64]  W. Xu,et al.  A urine/Cr(VI) fuel cell — Electrical power from processing heavy metal and human urine , 2016 .

[65]  S. Pitchumani,et al.  Preparation and characterization of quaternary ammonium functionalized poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) as anion exchange membrane for alkaline polymer electrolyte fuel cells , 2014 .

[66]  T. Zhao,et al.  Charge carriers in alkaline direct oxidation fuel cells , 2012 .

[67]  Simultaneous removal of phenol and dichromate from aqueous solution through a phenol-Cr(VI) coupled redox fuel cell reactor , 2017 .

[68]  L. An,et al.  Recent progress in alkaline direct ethylene glycol fuel cells for sustainable energy production , 2016 .

[69]  Erik Kjeang,et al.  Co-laminar flow cells for electrochemical energy conversion , 2014 .

[70]  Zhaolin Liu,et al.  Selective electro-oxidation of glycerol over Au supported on extended poly(4-vinylpyridine) functionalized graphene , 2015 .

[71]  Zucheng Wu,et al.  Removal of Cr(VI) with Cogeneration of Electricity by an Alkaline Fuel Cell Reactor , 2013 .

[72]  Wan Ramli Wan Daud,et al.  Review: Direct ethanol fuel cells , 2013 .