Abstract: Thermodynamic and kinetic considerations for the ethanol electrooxidation in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) were discussed. Theoretical calculations show that direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) exhibit better exergic efficiency than ethanol reforming PEMFC. The thermodynamic analysis show that when temperature is lower than 100 ℃, the conversion of ethanol steam reforming is less than 14% for ethanol complete oxidation. The kinetic study shows that PtSn/C anodes have a relatively high activity for ethanol electrooxidation, but such activity is not high enough for ethanol complete electrooxidation. The thermodynamic and kinetic analyses suggest that the cell temperature is one of the key factors for the DEFC development.

Key words: direct ethanol fuel cell, thermodynamic analysis, kinetic analysis, ethanol electrooxidation