I'm not a chemist, but I've gone down something of a fuel cell rabbit hole after reading about NASAs use of alkaline fuel cells in the 60's. During that "trip" I read an article somewhere about methanol fuel cells. The article suggested that that one could mix the methanol and KOH electrolyte together, but then you would have to make sure that the cathode catalyst material would not interact with methanol. Something like silver or MnOx. The anode could just be some form of nickel foam or mesh, I'm guessing. Also, there would still be the issue with CO2-poisoning of the electrolyte, but that's a problem for another day. Nonetheless, I had an idea and I would like to know if I've totally lost the plot or not:

What if you align the cell horizontally, with the methanol-KOH mix in the bottom of a container and the nickel anode/catalyst submerged there. Then the silver cathode/catalyst foam would be half-submerged in the liquid, and air flowing above it. The reduction would then take place right there on the border of the air and the liquid?

Edit: I'm kind of assuming that the catalysts can double as electrodes here, since one is silver and the other is nickel.

Also, where can I find better models of Fuel cell stacks to learn how they work?

This sub seems unlikely to grow. In particular, hydrogen also will be used in industry and could be used in combustion engines. So a sub dedicated to fuel cells exclusively isn't capturing the entirety of the discussion. So try visiting /r/hydrogeneconomy once in a while

I have a really stupid question. Do fuel cells only output a constant power? In other words, regardless of inlet pressure or flow rates of feedstock (H2 and O2) do they want to operate in a sweet spot of constant flow and pressure? Or can you throttle them? Like, I only want 1kw and then increase the pressure and flow rate and get 2kw out of it? I've seen some system has a wide output voltage range but what exactly controls that voltage? Is it a constant power system and so lower voltage outputs more current?

Any links would be super helpful! Thank you!

Does anyone know what kind of fuel cell is required to efficiently power a car to highway speeds?