Experimental and Numerical Study of Serpentine Flow Fields for Improving Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Performance

Abstract

Methanol crossover is an important issue as it affects direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) performance. But it may be controlled by selecting a proper flow field design. Experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of single, double and triple serpentine flow field configurations on a DMFC with a 25 cm 2 membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with a constant open ratio. A three dimensional model was also developed for the anode of the DMFC to predict methanol concentration and cell current density distributions. Experimental and model results show that at lower methanol concentrations (0.25-0.5M), single serpentine flow field (SSFF) provides high peak power density, while a double serpentine flow field (DSFF) gives high peak power density at a high methanol concentration (1-2M). Single and double serpentine flow fields exhibit the same peak power density (33 mW cm -2 ) at 1M. But the cell efficiency of double serpentine flow field is 12.5% which is 3.5% point greater than single serpentine flow field. This is attributed to reduced mixed potential. triple serpentine flow field (TSFF) shows the lowest peak power density and cell efficiency, which is attributed to high mass transfer resistance.

Experimental investigation on DMFCs using reduced noble metal loading with NiTiO3 as supportive material to enhance cell performances

“…On the other hand, in order to reduce the CO poisoning and effective conversation of CO to CO 2 adsorbed on the layer of catalyst, a catalytic material or higher amount of catalyst loading is requird [11]. Several numerical and experimental studies have been conducted for the synthesis of catalyst materials, ink preparation, Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) fabrication and operating parameters to improve the performance of the DMFC [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. It is well understood that the performance of the DMFCs are greatly dependent on the anode catalyst material, which should have high activity, stability and durability.…”