Importance

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Abstract

An alcohol and water recovery system for a direct aqueous alcohol fuel cell power plant includes at least one direct aqueous alcohol fuel cell for producing electrical energy, and a direct alcohol and water transfer device for recovering alcohol and water leaving the plant and transferring the recovered alcohol and water back into the plant. The direct alcohol and water transfer device passes a process oxidant stream upstream of the plant in mass transfer relationship with a plant exhaust stream that includes aqueous alcohol fuel and process oxidant fluid streams that have passed through the fuel cell, so that alcohol and water in the plant exhaust stream transfer directly through a mass transfer medium of the device to the process oxidant stream entering the fuel cell. The device includes a separator housing for supporting the transfer medium and for preventing bulk mixing of the streams. An exemplary mass transfer medium such as a liquid water portion of a water saturated polyfluorosulfonic ionomer selectively sorbs fluid substances consisting of polar molecules such as alcohol and/or water molecules from the plant exhaust stream containing polar and non-polar molecules, and desorbs the polar molecules into the process oxidant stream to directly recover and transfer alcohol fuel and water leaving the plant back into the fuel cell, and to thereby also humidify and add heat to the process oxidant stream.

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First Claim