Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFCs)

DIRECT METHANOL FUEL CELLS (DMFCs)
October, 1999

All text & photos by Mark Radosevich, Standard Alcohol
Company of America, unless otherwise noted.

This photo, taken during December 1998 at MHTX H.Q. Los Alamos, NM, shows the hands of Bob Hockaday, Chief Scientist for Manhattan Scientifics, Inc., holding his micro-dmfc. Notice that the micro-version fuel cell has been squeezed down to a tinfoil thickness. This is the thin fuel cell "ribbon" that will be manufactured in mile-long sheets. Bob is holding the fuel cell next to a "thin line" Motorola flip-phone battery.

Bob Hockaday holds a Motorola cell phone battery for scale in this photo taken at MHTX H.Q. in Los Alamos, December 1998. To his right is his "test rack" micro-DMFC apparatus which provides the electricity to operate the small black Nokia cell phone in the foreground. The hypo syringes on top of the rack are used to squirt windshield washer fluid (blue juice) fuel into the direct methanol fuel cell.

This DMFC was a very early prototype built in Detroit circa 1995/96. I'm not at liberty to say who built it, it reallydoesn't matter. A very old box. Kinda like a Model-T Ford. It worked, but not as 'plush' as the new cars today.

This color image was downloaded from JPL's material on the web. This little dmfc is approximately 3 inches square and was used to demonstrate the fuel cell. Note little clear tube behind the glass cage. Initially, a 3% methanol and 97% water solution was used as fuel, poured into a funnel which attached to the tube, and as the fuel passed through the box, the electrical current produced operated the purple fan above the fuel cell. I participated in demonstrations of this fuel cell to adults and kids alike who were amazed to see the demo work. No reformer, no compressed hydrogen gas. The hydrogen comes from the methanol in a water solution. Easy. Photo, circa 1997, by JPL, Pasadena.

This b&w image is circa 1995 and it was forwarded to me by the Press Office from Los Alamos National Labs (LANL) in New Mexico. This photo illustrated one of the very first regional news articles concerning the National Lab's work with the Direct Methanol Fuel Cell concept.

To my knowledge, no patents on DMFC work, funded by DARPA and others, have been granted to LANL. Although DMFC experimentation continues there today by a small group of electrochemists. The only legitimate patent sets from this region of New Mexico belong to Hockaday/MHTX for his work with the micro-DMFC. As you can see, the DMFC technology has come a long way in a few short years from this lab-bench fuel cell.

This b&w pic was shot at the Orlando Fuel Cell Conference in Nov. of 1996. It was a JPL proto-type of the DMFC, manufactured by Giner, Inc., from Waltham, Mass. This same little prototype went to the US military for use in powering soldier's gear.

The JPL-version dmfc, about 2 years old, 1997 vintage. It is the briefcase demo (3-4 copies exist in the world) which is carried around to fuel cell and methanol producers conventions by Ray Lewis from the American Methanol Institute. The demo unit was produced by Giner, Inc. from Waltham (Boston) Mass. The DMFC is self-contained in this briefcase. A squeeze of a finger-pump gets the methanol-water solution moving through the fuel cell and it generates electricity to run the small computer screen on the left side of the box which illustrates how simple the DIRECT reaction of ambient hydrogen in methanol reacts with oxygen from air to produce the power and co-generate hot water.