Written By: Aaron Maestri, Ph.D

Coming to your neighborhood car dealer:  Ford Pioneer methanol and gas dual tank truck  – safe and efficient driving for the whole family.

Researchers have for years attempted to develop cost-effective automotive catalysts that exhibit high activity in C-H activation reactions.  One reason for this push is obvious as gasoline prices continue to soar – even before the peak summer driving season, effectively draining the resources of individuals having to drive a motor vehicle.  This unavoidable fact leaves both consumers and oil companies with the difficult decision on looking away from conventional gasoline fuel systems to alternative, more innovative choices.

Methanol fuel cells would seem to be a rational and attractive solution (vs. hydrogen-based systems) due to the numerous advantages of this liquid fuel:
1)       Methanol offers ease of storage and transportation over hydrogen
2)       Likewise it is a much safer source of energy than hydrogen
3)       It represents a high energy density, clean burning fuel
4)       Methanol is ubiquitous - potentially available in great supply from CH₄ oxidation

The current state of Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFCs) is mostly limited to platinum-based systems, which are cost prohibitive and often not efficient.  Professor Viola Birss and co-workers at the University of Calgary have devised an elegant strategy to overcome earlier limitations in this field by utilizing a mixed metallic nanoparticulate catalyst.† The PtRuIr nanoparticles are able to efficiently oxidize methanol leading to the production of electric current at 4x that of the state-of-art system currently available.  This exciting development, which incorporates broadly dispersed metal nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes, opens the door to additional, viable commercial applications in the DMFC research field.
†Liao, S. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 3504.