US 7,488,548 B2
Direct methanol feed fuel cell and system
Subbarao Surampudi, Glendora, Calif. (US); Harvey A. Frank, Encino, Calif. (US); Sekharipuram R. Narayanan, Altadena, Calif. (US); William Chun, Los Angeles, Calif. (US); Barbara Jeffries-Nakamura, San Marino, Calif. (US); Andrew Kindler, San Marino, Calif. (US); and Gerald Halpert, Pasadena, Calif. (US)
Assigned to California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. (US)
Filed on Aug. 30, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/930,505.
Application 09/437331 is a division of application No. 09/006846, filed on Jan. 14, 1998, granted, now 6,146,781.
Application 10/930505 is a continuation of application No. 10/797625, filed on Mar. 09, 2004, abandoned.
Application 10/797625 is a continuation of application No. 09/894022, filed on Jun. 27, 2001, granted, now 6,703,150.
Application 09/894022 is a continuation of application No. 09/437331, filed on Nov. 09, 1999, granted, now 6,254,748.
Application 09/006846 is a continuation of application No. 08/569452, filed on Dec. 08, 1995, granted, now 5,773,162.
Application 08/569452 is a continuation in part of application No. 08/478801, filed on Jun. 07, 1995, granted, now 6,248,460.
Application 08/478801 is a continuation of application No. 08/135007, filed on Oct. 12, 1993, granted, now 5,599,638.
Prior Publication US 2005/0042487 A1, Feb. 24, 2005
Int. Cl. H01M 8/04 (2006.01); H01M 8/10 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 429—15  [429/22; 429/24; 429/30] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A direct fed methanol system, comprising:
a fuel cell stack, including an anode, a cathode, and a proton conducting solid polymer electrolyte membrane coupled between said anode and cathode; and
a fuel supplying part, which supplies methanol containing fuel which is substantially free of free acid electrolyte to said anode of said fuel cell stack including a meter which meters an amount of fuel which is used by the fuel cell, and controls supply of fuel based on said metering.