Electrochemical Oxidation of Carbon Monoxide in Reformate Hydrogen for PEM Fuel Cells

<p>Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning of platinum anode significantly decreases the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). Various techniques studied to remove CO from source or mitigate CO poisoning have met with limited success due to fuel loss or increases infrastructure requirements to meet the operating needs. We developed a twin cell electrochemical filter that is similar in construction of the PEMFC and remove CO with minimal fuel loss. In this CO in fuel gas is adsorbed on a Pt electrode and oxidized by applying a pulse potential. The CO kinetics on Pt electrode was characterized by employing cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry techniques. A fixed bed adsorber model was used to characterize the adsorption part of the filtering. The model was validated by demonstrating as a filter cell. The performance was compared with other CO removing techniques.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Campus Access Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Chemical Engineering

Year

2011

Author dc:creator

• Balasubramanian, Sivagaminathan

Contributors dc:contributor

• John W Weidner

• Chemical Engineering
• Engineering
• carbon monoxide
• catalystic poisoning
• CO oxidation
• electrochemical filter
• PEM fuel cells

Statement dc:rights

• © 2011, Sivagaminathan Balasubramanian

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/566

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarcommons.sc.edu:etd-1567