Performance Modeling of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Fueled With Methanol and Ethanol

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. O. Bade Shrestha ◽  
Sujith Mohan
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cells ◽  
High Energy ◽  
High Energy Density ◽  
Portable Devices ◽  
Transport Losses ◽  
Direct Methanol ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
Experimental Values ◽  
Methanol Fuel Cell

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) are becoming a choice of a power source in the field of power electronics, and portable devices because of their high energy density. The benefits of using a fuel cell toward the environment will be enhanced if the fuel used for its application comes from renewable sources such as ethanol. A method of modeling of the performance of DMFC was developed and validated with the experimental data obtained from a passive DMFC operated under varying methanol and ethanol concentrations. Impedance spectroscopy was employed to measure ohmic, activation and mass transport losses for all concentrations. Improved performance of the cell was observed when the concentrations of the solutions were closer to stoichiometric values. The model predicted results were compared to the corresponding experimental values and found satisfactory.

Performance Modeling of a DMFC Fueled With Methanol and Ethanol

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujith Mohan ◽  
S. O. Bade Shrestha
Keyword(s):  
Performance Modeling ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cells ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Power Source ◽  
High Energy Density ◽  
Portable Devices ◽  
Transport Losses ◽  
Direct Methanol ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
Experimental Values

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) are becoming a choice of a power source in the field of power electronics, and portable devices because of their high energy density. The benefits of using a fuel cell towards the environment will be enhanced if the fuel used for its application comes from renewable sources such as ethanol. A method of modeling of the performance of DMFC was developed and validated with the experimental data obtained from a passive DMFC operated under varying methanol and ethanol concentrations. Impedance spectroscopy was employed to measure ohmic, activation and mass transport losses for all concentrations. Improved performance of the cell was observed when the concentrations of the solutions were closer to stoichiometric values. The model predicted results were compared to the corresponding experimental values and found satisfactory.

Evaluation of the Performance Characteristics of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell With Multifuels

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujith Mohan ◽  
S. O. Bade Shrestha
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cells ◽  
Operating Temperature ◽  
High Energy ◽  
High Energy Density ◽  
Power Sources ◽  
Transport Losses ◽  
Direct Methanol ◽  
Methanol Fuel Cell

Direct methanol fuel cells are one of the alternate power sources for the field of power electronics because of their high energy density. The benefits of a fuel cell toward the environment can be greatly improved if the fuel used for its application comes from renewable sources. In this study, the performance of a direct methanol fuel cell was investigated under five different methanol concentrations. The effect of methanol concentration on the cell operating temperature is studied. Impedance spectroscopy was conducted to measure the ohmic, activation, and mass transport losses for all concentrations. The cell performance was evaluated using methane and ethanol fuels and this was compared with methanol operation.

Evaluation of the Performance Characteristics of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell With Multi Fuels

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujith Mohan ◽  
S. O. Bade Shrestha
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cells ◽  
Operating Temperature ◽  
High Energy ◽  
High Energy Density ◽  
Power Sources ◽  
Transport Losses ◽  
Direct Methanol ◽  
Methanol Fuel Cell

Direct methanol fuel cells are one of the alternate power sources for the field of power electronics because of their high energy density. The benefits of a fuel cell towards the environment can be greatly improved if the fuel used for its application comes from renewable sources. In this study, the performance of a direct methanol fuel cell was investigated under five different methanol concentrations. The effect of methanol concentration on the cell operating temperature is studied. Impedance spectroscopy was conducted to measure the ohmic, activation and mass transport losses for all concentrations. The cell performance was evaluated using methane and ethanol fuels and this was compared with methanol operation.

Conceptual Design of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Powered by a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell to Enlarge Endurance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Villalba-Herreros ◽  
Teresa J. Leo ◽  
Ricardo Abad
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell ◽  
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle ◽  
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles ◽  
High Energy ◽  
High Energy Density ◽  
Direct Methanol ◽  
Offshore Industry ◽  
Methanol Fuel Cell

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are versatile machines capable of more and more complex missions including the offshore industry. The ability to carry out some missions relies on the endurance the vehicle is provided with. In this sense, fuel cells are found to be very adequate devices to enlarge AUVs endurance because of the high energy density and specific energy they can achieve, but the application of fuel cell technology to AUVs faces specific challenges that need to be overcome. The present work describes the conceptual design process of a typical AUV powered by a direct methanol fuel cell. Methanol is a high available fuel and its handling system is simple. The obtained results indicate that the manufacturing of such a vehicle is possible within several constrains, being the carbon dioxide treatment system the most critical component of the energy plant. The projected vehicle is compared to current vehicles on the market showing the improved endurance.

scholarly journals Analysis on Geometry of Fluid Flow Manifold in Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 822-827
Author(s):  
Govindarasu Ramasamy ◽  
R. Kavitha ◽  
M. Nambiraj ◽  
R. Praveen Kumaar ◽  
N. N. Harish Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Fuel Cells ◽  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell ◽  
Flow Distribution ◽  
High Energy ◽  
High Energy Density ◽  
No Production ◽  
Direct Methanol ◽  
Methanol Fuel Cell

Fuel cells are the devices that convert chemical energy into electrical energy through an electrochemical reaction. Direct Methanol Fuel cell (DMFC) is a proton exchange membrane fuel cells in which methanol is used as fuel. Its high energy density makes it suitable for fuel cells. Even though carbon dioxide is produced, there is no production of sulfur or nitrogen oxides. The problems usually occurred while working with DMFC are methanol crossover, condensation of methanol, water management and carbon dioxide release. In that the uneven flow distribution, accumulation of carbon dioxide bubbles in the fuel cell are the major issues in DMFC. To prevent these issues, this work focuses on the theoretical and experimental studies on development of fuel cells with special importance to geometry of the manifold. This paper provides the optimal solution for preventing uneven flow distribution that is the usage of squoval shaped manifold which is the combination of both square and circle. Performance of DMFC with squoval shape manifold is evaluated experimentally and is compared with square shape manifold and rectangle shape manifold geometry design.

The Role of Fuel Cells for Consumer Electronic Products and Toys

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Banazwski ◽  
R. K. Shah
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cells ◽  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Proton Exchange Membrane ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cells ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Proton Exchange ◽  
Consumer Electronics ◽  
High Energy Density ◽  
Direct Methanol

Batteries have not kept pace with the advancing technology that they power, but they are used in everything from cell phones, laptop computers, and toys to consumer electronics. Compared to the devices that they power, batteries are relatively heavy, expensive per unit power they produce, last a relatively short time and recharging them takes hours. The solution to this less than desired means of a power source is fuel cells. Three fuel cells, also referred to as air breathers, considered are proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC), and direct formic acid fuel cells (DFAFC). We will discuss these fuel cells for micro and portable applications within the power range of 0.5 to 20 W for potential replacement of batteries. The reason for developing such fuel cells is to harness the power stored in the high energy density fuels, which provides more power and longer run times for the same packaging volume as batteries. The advantages of each type of fuel cell over batteries, their unique characteristics, technical drawbacks, current and future consumer products, and commercial issues will be outlined in this paper. A growing mobile society and consumer demands will drive the development of fuel cell technology forward as batteries reach their limit.

Experimental Investigation on the Performance of a Formic Acid Electrolyte-Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ouellette ◽  
Cynthia Ann Cruickshank ◽  
Edgar Matida
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Formic Acid ◽  
Power Output ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Portable Devices ◽  
Acid Electrolyte ◽  
Optimal Operating ◽  
Direct Methanol ◽  
Methanol Fuel Cell

The performance of a new methanol fuel cell that utilizes a liquid formic acid electrolyte, named the formic acid electrolyte-direct methanol fuel cell (FAE-DMFC) is experimentally investigated. This fuel cell type has the capability of recycling/washing away methanol, without the need of methanol-electrolyte separation. Three fuel cell configurations were examined: a flowing electrolyte and two circulating electrolyte configurations. From these three configurations, the flowing electrolyte and the circulating electrolyte, with the electrolyte outlet routed to the anode inlet, provided the most stable power output, where minimal decay in performance and less than 3% and 5.6% variation in power output were observed in the respective configurations. The flowing electrolyte configuration also yielded the greatest power output by as much as 34%. Furthermore, for the flowing electrolyte configuration, several key operating conditions were experimentally tested to determine the optimal operating points. It was found that an inlet concentration of 2.2 M methanol and 6.5 M formic acid, as along with a cell temperature of 52.8 °C provided the best performance. Since this fuel cell has a low optimal operating temperature, this fuel cell has potential applications for handheld portable devices.

Direct methanol fuel cell modeling based on the norm optimal iterative learning control

2020 ◽  
Vol 235 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-79
Author(s):  
Nastaran Shakeri ◽  
Zahra Rahmani ◽  
Abolfazl Ranjbar Noei ◽  
Mohammadreza Zamani
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Iterative Learning Control ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cells ◽  
Learning Control ◽  
Iterative Learning ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Primary Model ◽  
Direct Methanol ◽  
Methanol Fuel Cell

Direct methanol fuel cells are one of the most promisingly critical fuel cell technologies for portable applications. Due to the strong dependency between actual operating conditions and electrical power, acquiring an explicit model becomes difficult. In this article, the behavioral model of direct methanol fuel cell is proposed with satisfactory accuracy, using only input/output measurement data. First, using the generated data which are tested on the direct methanol fuel cell, the frequency response of the direct methanol fuel cell is estimated as a primary model in lower accuracy. Then, the norm optimal iterative learning control is used to improve the estimated model of the direct methanol fuel cell with a predictive trial information algorithm. Iterative learning control can be used for controlling systems with imprecise models as it is capable of correcting the input control signal in each trial. The proposed algorithm uses not only the past trial information but also the future trials which are predicted. It is found that better performance, as well as much more convergence speed, can be achieved with the predicted future trials. In addition, applying the norm optimal iterative learning control on the proposed procedure, resulted from the solution of a quadratic optimization problem, leads to the optimal selection of the control inputs. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach by practical data.

scholarly journals A Novel Button-Type Micro Direct Methanol Fuel Cell with Graphene Diffusion Layer

Micromachines ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 658
Author(s):  
Zhu ◽  
Gao ◽  
Li
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Power Density ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cells ◽  
Effective Area ◽  
Unit Weight ◽  
Specific Power ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Direct Methanol ◽  
Methanol Fuel Cell

In order to solve the problem that bolts in traditional packaged direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) take up a large area and reduce the specific energy (energy per unit weight) and power density (power per unit area), a new button-type micro direct methanol fuel cell (B-μDMFC) is designed, assembled, and packaged. The cell with four different structures was tested before and after packaging. The results indicate that the button cell with three-dimensional graphene and springs has the best performance. The equivalent circuit and methanol diffusion model was applied to explain the experimental results. The peak volumetric specific power density of the cell is 11.85 mW cm−3. This is much higher than traditional packaged DMFC, because the novel B-μDMFC eliminates bolts in the structure and improves the effective area ratio of the cell.

Silicon-based Micro Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Stack to Power Portable Devices Using MEMS Technology

2014 ◽  
Vol 153 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunguang Suo ◽  
Wenbin Zhang ◽  
Guangmin Wu ◽  
Hua Wang ◽  
Xiaohong Quan
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Direct Methanol Fuel Cell ◽  
Portable Devices ◽  
Fuel Cell Stack ◽  
Direct Methanol ◽  
Mems Technology ◽  
Silicon Based ◽  
Methanol Fuel Cell
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