“This project is funded by IMPIVA as part of the Projects in Collaboration programme. The main aim of the project is to develop a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) for portable applications. Firstly, a study will be made to learn about the current status of DMFC technology. From this and the knowledge we have in the field, new membranes will be developed with improved properties for DMFC and a DMFC single cell will be developed at laboratory scale with its corresponding test bank to evaluate the new membranes. The next step will be to develop a test bank for characterising DMFC cell stacks. After the tests have been performed, the new polymer membranes selected will be optimised and scaled up and a DMFC stack will be developed with the corresponding balance of plant. Finally, DMFC prototypes will be developed for specific applications. In order to achieve the project objectives, it has the support of the Association for Research of the Toy and related and allied Industries (AIJU), and the Technology Institute of Energy (ITE), which have knowledge and experience in the field of research in fuel cells. The results of the project in the first year (2011) were a study referring to the DMFC for portable applications, new hybrid membranes have been developed for DMFCs and the design and component selection for test banks for the single cell was completed. In the second year of the project (2012) it is hoped to complete the project by obtaining optimum membranes at scale, constructing the single cell, completing the construction of the test bank and obtaining the stack for the DMFCs for testing. All the results will enable obtaining the main result: obtaining DMFC prototypes for portable applications.”

Start date: 01/02/2011