Technical and Economic Evaluation of a Formic Acid/Hydrogen Peroxide Fuel Cell System With Pt-M/C as Anode Catalyst

Abstract

Cell performance of formic acid/hydrogen peroxide (HCOOH/H2 O2 ) fuel cell, using commercial Pt-Ru/C, and prepared Pt-M/C (M = Ir, Mo, Co, Ag, W, Ni, Sn) bimetallic catalysts as anode catalysts are experimentally investigated and reported in this paper. Corresponding to cell performance, electrocatalytic activity of the system using commercially available and prepared catalysts is evaluated by linear sweep voltammetry technique (LSV). The result shows that the system using 20%Pt-10%Sn/C yields better formic acid oxidation reaction than that of other Pt-M/C bimetallic catalysts, but it is inferior to that of 20%Pt-10%Ru/C commercial catalyst. In addition, the cell performance of HCOOH/H2 O2 fuel cell with various catalyst compositions of Pt and Sn content, in portions of 10:20, 15:15, and 20:10, respectively, is also studied. Comparison among those catalysts, 15%Pt-15%Sn/C yields better cell performance than the others. Levelized energy cost (LEC) and sensitivity analysis on LEC are also assessed.