Effect of Anode Gas Diffussion Layer Thickness and Porosity on the Performance of Passive Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muralikrishna Boni ◽  
S Srinivasa Rao ◽  
G Naga Srinivasulu ◽  
Ch Venkata Narayana

Abstract Fuel cells are finding wide range of applications from small capacity cells used for portable electronic devices to large capacity stacks for automobile applications. Among the different types of fuel cells, passive Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) has many advantages because of its simplicity. This paper presents the effect of Anode Diffusion Layer (ADL) thickness and its porosity on the performance of a passive DMFC. A one-dimensional, non-isothermal model is developed in MATLAB environment for exploring the complex physicochemical phenomena taking place inside the passive DMFC, by considering both heat and mass transfer effects. Modeling studies have been carried out by varying the ADL thickness from 0.1 mm to 0.6 mm, and the ADL porosity from 0.3 to 0.8. The concentration distribution of methanol, water and oxygen inside the cell have been predicted and, the crossover of methanol and water across the membrane have also been estimated. It is observed that increase in thickness of the ADL decreases the methanol corss over. Further, the effect of ADL thickness and porosity on the anodic overpotential and cathodic overpotential have been estimated. It was observed that increase in ADL thickness as well as its porosity increase the overpotentials.

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mojtaba Tafaoli-Masoule ◽  
Arian Bahrami ◽  
Danial Mohammadrezaei

It is well known that anode and cathode pressures and cell temperature are the effective parameters in performance of Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC). In the present study, the genetic algorithm as one of the most powerful optimization tools is applied to determine operating conditions which result in the maximum power density of a DMFC. A quasi-two-dimensional, isothermal model is presented to determine maximum power of a DMFC. For validation of this model, the results of the model are compared to experimental results and shown to be in good agreement with them.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (46) ◽  
pp. 19914-19919 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianyu Cao ◽  
Hui Zhuang ◽  
Mengwei Guo ◽  
Hongning Wang ◽  
Juan Xu ◽  
...  

Mesoporous graphenes were synthesized via a template-assisted pyrolysis approach and used as a material for a porous diffusion layer in direct methanol fuel cells.


RSC Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 2314-2322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mochammad Purwanto ◽  
Lukman Atmaja ◽  
Mohamad Azuwa Mohamed ◽  
M. T. Salleh ◽  
Juhana Jaafar ◽  
...  

A composite membrane was fabricated from biopolymer chitosan and montmorillonite (MMT) filler as an alternative membrane electrolyte for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) application.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 822-827
Author(s):  
Govindarasu Ramasamy ◽  
R. Kavitha ◽  
M. Nambiraj ◽  
R. Praveen Kumaar ◽  
N. N. Harish Kumar

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.


2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Hall ◽  
Corey Grice ◽  
Bogdan Gurau ◽  
Paul McGinn

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