J. Electrochem. Sci. Technol., 2016, 7(2), 146-152 - 146 - The Operation of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell using Hydrogen Produced from the Combined Methanol Reforming Process Sang Sun Park 1 , Yukwon Jeon 2 , Jong-Man Park 2 , Hyeseon Kim 1 , Sung Won Choi 2 , Hasuck Kim 3 , and Yong-Gun Shul 2, * 1 lotte chemical, #24-1 Jang-dong, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon-city. 305-726, Republic of Korea 2 Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea 3 Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science &Technology (DGIST), 50-1 Sang-Ri, Hyeonpung-Myeon, Dalseong-Gun, Daegu 711-873, South Korea ABSTRACT A combined system with PEMFC and reformer is introduced and optimized for the real use of this kind of system in the future. The hydrogen source to operate the PEMFC system is methanol, which needs two parts of methanol reforming reac- tion and preferential oxidation (PROX) for the hydrogen fuel process in the combined operation PEMFC system. With the optimized methanol steam reforming condition, we tested PROX reactions in various operation temperature from 170 to 270 o C to investigate CO concentration data in the reformed gases. Using these different CO concentration, PEMFC per- formances are achieved at the combined system. Pt/C and Ru promoted Pt/C were catalysts were used for the anode to com- pare the stability in CO contained gases. The alloy catalyst of PtRu/C shows higher performance and better resistance to CO than the Pt/C at even high CO amount of 200 ppm, indicating a promotion not only to the activity but also to the CO tolerance. Furthermore, in a system point of view, there is a fluctuation in the PEMFC operation due to the unstable fuel supply. Therefore, we also modified the methanol reforming by a scaled up reactor and pressurization to produce steady operation of PEMFC. The optimized system with the methanol reformer and PEMFC shows a stable performance for a long time, which is providing a valuable data for the PEMFC commercialization. Keywords : Methanol reforming, Preferential oxidation (PROX), Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC), Alloy catalyst Received : 9 April 2016, Revised : 3 May 2016, Accepted : 4 May 2016 1. Introduction Fuel Cell Vehicles are achieving energy efficien- cies of 40 to 50 percent in current road tests com- pared to 10 to 16 percent in conventional vehicles. Fuel cell vehicle can have twice as efficient at least than advanced vehicle like gasoline/battery hybrids [1]. Most of studies for on-board hydrogen produc- tion for fuel cells are based on two types of carbon compounds. One is oxygen-containing compounds, methanol, ethanol and etc. The others are hydrocar- bons such as ethers (dimethylether, etc), natural gas, propane gas, gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel. Auto- motive Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) requires hydrogen gas to operate. The most convenient way to obtain the gas would be to use an on-board fuel processor to convert or reform com- monly available liquid fuels, such as gasoline, metha- nol, and ethanol, into hydrogen. One of the major challenges to PEMECs system for vehicle has been the low tolerance to carbon mon- oxide on the fuel cell anode. For conventional fuel cells, the carbon monoxide levels need to be below *E-mail address: shulyg@yonsei.ac.kr DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5229/JECST.2016.7.2.146 Research Article Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology