Potentials of the direct use of ethanol fuel cell as backup electricity for renewable energy system

Abstract

The issue of renewable energy has received considerable critical attention. This has led to a decline in the population of Greenhouse Gas (henceforth GHG) emissions, health-risk related emissions and energy security. The main challenge faced by many researchers is major issues of low reliability for producing electricity from solar PV. Wind energy has accentuated the problem of sharing of these renewable energies down in the National Energy plans. The solar PV and wind energy may cause fluctuation depending on the daytime and season. The backup electricity is required for increasing reliability of these renewable energy sources. It is now well established that the Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell (henceforth DEFC) is a high bio-fuel production country. Ethanol also has many advantages such as, high energy density, easy for storage and transport, less dangerous to handle compared to hydrogen gas. In addition, the energy efficiency of DEFC is comparable to that of other fuel cell technology. The low operating temperature means less startup period and thermal input energy. This study aims to analyze the potentials to use DEFC as backup electricity for the renewable energy system. The performance characteristics were examined according to updated experimental results. The advantages and challenges were also discussed in this study.