Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Systems

Introduction |  How it works  |  The range and specifications  | Applications

1) Introduction

Direct methanol fuel cells (or DMFC for short) are the ideal solution for low-power requirement, long run-time applications and are an ideal alternative to the cost and manpower intensive job of continually replacing batteries in off-grid power applications.

The EFOY range supplied by UPS Systems is practically a plug-and-play solution to providing power in remote locations or where providing power from the grid is either cost-prohibitive or impractical and the use of alternative power sources is not an option.

Simply linking an EFOY fuel cell to a battery and an inverter can produce up to 90W of continuous long-run-time power from a single unit and by running units in parallel can produce up to 450W of clean continuous practically zero maintenance power ideal for appllications such as:

• Remote Monitoring and Telemetry

 

• Security applications

 

• Traffic management and signalling

 

• In-vehicle power

   

  The EFOY Fuel Cell System

The EFOY Fuel Cell is a self contained unit which can be supplied in units providing 25,50, 65 or 90W as a single unit. Output is 12 or 24V but this can be stepped up using an inverter to supply 110 or 220V.

Methanol fuel is supplied in specially designed leak proof and impact resistant containers in 5l, 10l and 28L sizes. Dependent on load and unit size these can provide up to 52 days run time for a single canister.

The control unit

Each EFOY unit comes with a central remote-control unit which provides not only the main controls of the unit but also data on the fuel cell's status. The fuel cell can also be linked via an RJ45 data interface to a modem or GSM remote montoring system such as UPS System's own REMO monitoring system allowing open communications with the system.

The data supplied by the unit includes:

• Battery Voltage