ABSTRACT
The hydrogen fueled proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEM-
FCs) have unique characteristics of high energy and zero emission.
However, in the 21st century it has been a growing perception
that electricity generation by H2-O2 fuel cell primarily depends
on the concept of “Hydrogen Economy.” On the other hand,
aliphatic alcohols like methanol, ethanol, propanol, and butanol
are characterized by their octane rating and are identified as
the future choices for reducing oil imports. Among these, there
has been a great deal of interest in the development of direct
ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) technology operating on bioethanol as the
renewable source that can easily be produced, on a large scale,
from agricultural and municipal wastes. In fact, use of ethanol
reduces carbon dioxide emission by an average of 34%, compared
to gasoline. The main prerequisite of the liquid fuel for PEMFC
application is an appreciably high electrochemical reactivity at
relatively low temperature, which can be routed through judicious
choice of stringent catalysts for alcohol oxidation as well as the
oxygen reduction reaction. In the present chapter, a comprehensive
discussion has beenmade on the state-of-the-art catalyst technology
for anodic oxidation of alcohol and ethanol, in particular, for low
temperature fuel cell application. In DEFC, the catalysts designed
with multimetallic framework have shown improved functional
properties resulting from the combinatorial effect of M-M inter-
atomic distance, number of nearest neighboring metal atoms, d
band vacancy, size, dispersion, and metal content on the surface. A
great deal of interest has arisen in the DEFCs’ working in alkaline
environment, which allows the use of inexpensive non-platinum
metal as well as the transitional metals and metal oxides as critical
electrode components harnessingmore energy and at the same time
ensuring affordability of the fuel cell system.
