Seal of approval

A UK electro-chemical specialist is claiming a newly-developed membrane represents a significant step towards commercially viable fuel cells.

ITM Power said the new material, for use in proton exchange membrane cells (PEMs) that use methanol as their fuel, could drastically reduce the cost of the systems.

The only existing reliable membrane material for use in PEMs is Nafion, which is manufactured by global chemical giant DuPont at a cost of $500 per square metre, said ITM.

The UK company claims to have developed an innovative hydrocarbon polymer membrane, which not only has three times the ionic conductivity of Nafion but costs $5 per square metre.

One of the problems with fuel cell membranes is that the methanol can leak through to the other side of the chamber — known as methanol crossover — and ITM said its material also performs well in this regard.

The ITM membrane will enable the cells to be based on alkaline chemistry. This produces higher catalytic activity than acid and means that expensive platinum could be replaced by palladium as the catalyst on the fuel side, which is about a quarter of the cost.