Breakthrough! MIT boosts ethanol fuel cells efficiency by 30%

Many researchers and engineers have wanted to replace batteries in consumer electronics with methanol fuel cells for a while, but their big weakness so far has been the proton membrane.Chemical-engineering professor Paula Hammond of MIT explains in a paper published in Advanced Materials that a new inexpensive membrane (shown in the first pic above — looks kind of like regular plastic) can reduce methanol crossover and increase the efficiency of the methanol fuel cell by more than 50%.

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