Electrooxidation of Coconut Oil in Alkaline Electrolyte

Providing more and more energy is an essential task of today's energetic industry. In the last few years, addition to traditional methods of energy production, alternative energy sources have been fast developing. One of the devices that can use these sources is fuel cell. The fuel cells can be a power source of future mainly due to their high efficiency, low influence on environment and possibility of powering with different fuels. Most often fuel cells are powered by hydrogen. However, problems with the problems with its cheap production and storage are the reason for the search of new fuels for fuel cells. But it must be a fuel that will provide zero or low emission level. One of these fuels can be vegetable oil. The paper presents measurements of electrooxidation of coconut oil emulsion on a smooth platinum electrode in an aqueous solution of KOH. Electrochemical measurements were performed in a glass cell with AMEL System 5000 potentiostat. The obtained maximum current density is equal 25 mA/cm2. So, a fundamental possibility of using the coconut oil as fuel for fuel cell. But is necessary to keep the temperature of process above 303K.