Direct methanol–air fuel cells with membranes plus circulating electrolyte

Modeling Methanol Crossover by Diffusion and Electro‐Osmosis in a Flowing Electrolyte Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

“…In one configuration, an electrolyte channel is immersed between two thin PEM layers as shown in Figure 1. Other possible designs have also been shown [9,10,13]. The flowing electrolyte (dilute sulphuric acid) effectively removes methanol from the MEA by convection, and hinders its arrival at the cathode.…”

“…Another method has already been introduced, based on a membrane electrode assembly concept invented by Kordesch et al [9,10], where the membrane is replaced by a flowing electrolyte. This novel design efficiently removes methanol from the electrolyte compartment by simple convection.…”

“…The methanol in the electrolyte can be separated by membrane methods or other techniques. It can be productively consumed, and a small amount may be used up in a loaded control sensing cell which then automatically adjusts the methanol feed to the system [10]. Many numerical as well as mathematical models of the conventional PEM-DMFC can be found in the literature [11,12], but to make the flowing electrolyte direct methanol fuel cell (FE-DMFC) competitive much more work is needed.…”

A single domain approach to modeling the multiphase flow within a flowing electrolyte – direct methanol fuel cell

“…One approach was proposed by Kordesch and his team with the flowing electrolyte fuel cell [14,15]. In this case, the anode and cathode of the DMFC are separated by an ionically conductive fluid (liquid electrolyte) such as diluted sulfuric acid, as shown in Fig.…”

Parametric studies on the membrane arrangement and porous properties of the flowing electrolyte channel in a flowing electrolyte–direct methanol fuel cell

“…The flowing electrolyteedirect methanol fuel cell (FEeDMFC) is a potential solution to the long standing methanol crossover problem for the DMFC [1]. In this fuel cell, shown in Fig.…”