The knowledge of heat loss from the fuel cell will be helpful to decide on material components and fixture design. In the present study, a new methodology is proposed to estimate heat loss from passive DMFC using interferometry technique. Printed circuit board (PCB) fixture is adapted in our study that replaces end plate and current collector. The accurate cell temperature distribution is useful to estimate the heat from the cell fixture. The cell temperature distribution is measured based on infra‐red (IR) thermography and this temperature distribution is used to estimate the heat transfer coefficient of the fuel cell. Differential interferometer (DI) technique is used to estimate the heat transfer under different operating conditions of the fuel cell. The cell surface temperature measured on the cathode gas diffusion layer (GDL) is 42 °C for 5M methanol concentration whereas for 1M, it is 32 °C. Based on the analysis , the average heat transfer coefficient of the cell at vertical PCB rib orientation using 5M methanol concentration is estimated to be 2.7 Wm−2 K−1. A two‐dimensional non‐isothermal single‐phase half‐cell (cathode) model is developed and compared with experiments. The cell temperature distribution obtained from model is in good agreement with experiments. The model is extended to study the effect of PCB orientation and thermal conductivity of PCB material on heat loss. The cell at vertical PCB rib orientation retains 15 ‐ 20% more heat than horizontal rib. Therefore, the cell temperature showed 42 °C and performed 10% better compared to horizontal PCB rib.
In a passive direct methanol fuel cell, the cell temperature is linked to the heat generated during operation. It is important to study about cell temperature to understand cell performance, and dynamic behavior. In the present study, experiments on passive and air breathing direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) of a 25 cm2 effective cell area are conducted using printed circuit board (PCB) to investigate the surface temperature distribution. A non‐intrusive infra‐red thermography is used to record in situ surface temperature and it is observed that the maximum temperature recorded for a passive DMFC (PDMFC) is 42 °C compared to 34 °C for air breathing direct methanol fuel cell (ABDMFC) at steady state condition. Temperature distribution reveals that maximum temperature near the top middle portion of the PCB. Subsequently, PDMFC recorded maximum power density of 3.9 mW cm−2 compared to 2.8mW cm−2 for ABDMFC. Based on the PCB rib orientation for 5M feed concentration, vertical rib recorded 46 °C whereas 44 °C for horizontal rib. For ABDMFC, the response to load change is 22 s due to CO2 removal when compared to 4–5 min for PDMFC. It is concluded that the methanol concentration governs the heat generated in a PDMFC and lead to cell temperature distribution, depending on the cell fixture design under average ambient condition of 30 °C and 50% relative humidity.
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