A direct alkaline fuel cell with a liquid potassium hydroxide solution as an electrolyte is developed for the direct use of methanol, ethanol or sodium borohydride as fuel. Three different catalysts, e.g., Pt-black or Pt/Ru (40 wt.%:20 wt.%)/C or Pt/C (40 wt.%), with varying loads at the anode against a MnO2 cathode are studied. The electrodes are prepared by spreading the catalyst slurry on a carbon paper substrate. Nickel mesh is used as a current-collector. The Pt-Ru/C produces the best cell performance for methanol, ethanol and sodium borohydride fuels. The performance improves with increase in anode catalyst loading, but beyond 1 mg cm(-2) does not change appreciably except in case of ethanol for which there is a slight improvement when using Pt-Ru/C at 1.5 mA cm(-2.) The power density achieved with the Pt-Ru catalyst at 1 mg cm(-2) 15.8 mW cm(-2) at 26.5 mA cm(-2) for methanol and 16 mW cm(-2) at 26 mA cm(-2) for ethanol. The power density achieved for NaBH4 is 20 mW cm(-2) at 30 mA cm(-2) using Pt-black. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.