Can Ethanol Produce Electricity?
A research team in New Mexico is studying the possibility of putting biofuel into a fuel cell, according to a Domestic Fuel article. The articles states that “according to the director of the University of New Mexico’s (UNM) Center for Emerging Energy Technologies Plamen Atanassov, they hope to ‘link the world of biofuels with the world of fuel cells.’” The project utilizes a major grant from the Department of Energy and brings together the research faculty from UNM, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Tech, and Eastern New Mexico University as well as researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Labs. The research groups are exploring the possibility of making usable fuel cells from ethanol to produce electricity. The groups want to determine whether ethanol can be reformed to produce hydrogen. If possible, they will build on the results to explore how direct electrochemical oxidation of ethanol might work. The research is expected to result in a new family
