Low methanol crossover and high efficiency direct methanol fuel cell: The influence of diffusion layers

Casalegno, Andrea; Santoro, Carlo; Rinaldi, Fabio; Marchesi, R.

doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2010.11.050

Cited by 41 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The experimental analyses of DMFC performance and methanol crossover are carried out implementing, in the equipment previously developed [41], the measure of water concentration at cathode outlet.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The experimental analysis is carried out on two of the three MEAs already characterized in Ref. [41]: MEA GG, GDL without MPL on both anode and cathode; MEA GM, GDL without MPL at anode and GDL with MPL at cathode.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[41] have been reproduced by means of the improved experimental setup. Note that in all the investigated operating conditions (Table 1 1 ) the anode flow rate is set at 1 g min À1 and the anode mean pressure at 105 kPa.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Water transport and flooding in DMFC: Experimental and modeling analyses

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Casalegno

Santoro

et al. 2012

Journal of Power Sources

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Water transport and flooding in DMFC: Experimental and modeling analyses

Zago

Casalegno

Santoro

et al. 2012

Journal of Power Sources

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“…This would be an effective solution to make the MFC systems more affordable for largescale application and future commercialization. Currently, the most common Pt loading used in MFCs is 0.5 mgPt/cm 2 [4e8], which is similar at the cathodic Pt loadings in traditional hydrogen fuel cells [22e24] and 3e5 times lower than the cathodic Pt loadings in direct methanol fuel cells [25,26]. However, this Pt loading is still expensive for the real-world application of large-scale MFCs, considering the lower power generation in MFCs than traditional fuel cells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power generation of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) with low cathodic platinum loading

Santoro

Cristiani

et al. 2013

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

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“…15, it is generally assumed that no CO 2 , in either the liquid or gas phase, can permeate through the membrane. 1,6,7,[28][29][30][31] Some authors have studied this experimentally and have found that CO 2 does indeed cross over through the membrane to the cathode and the amount present may be negligible 32 or nonnegligible 33,34 based on the operating conditions. In this paper, however, CO 2 crossover was neglected, and should provide an indication of the most aggressive requirements for CO 2 removal.…”

Section: 2223mentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling of Coupled Multiphase Transport in Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Diffusion Layers

Garvin

Meyers

2011

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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A one-dimensional, two-phase model for the anode diffusion layer (DL) of a liquid-feed direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is developed. This model incorporates the use of Stefan-Maxwell formulation of multiphase diffusion to model the mass transport of water (H 2 O), methanol, and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in both the liquid and gas phases throughout the porous DL. The model uses a muticomponent equation of state to model the equilibrium between each species in its gas and liquid form inside the porous medium. It is shown how the properties of the DL, including the permeability, contact angle, porosity, and thickness, affect the performance of the DMFC, in terms of ability to remove CO 2 and modify the methanol concentration at the diffusion layer=catalyst layer (CL) interface. Specifically, we find that having a small permeability and a thick DL will both promote a lower methanol concentration and enhance CO 2 removal, but the other parameters result in a tradeoff in performance. The preferred transport properties depend strongly on the specified operating temperature of the cell, as both methanol and water partition more preferentially to the vapor phase as the temperature is increased. Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) are ideal for powering portable devices. Unlike batteries, they do not require an external power source to be recharged, can be refueled within minutes, and can operate at low temperatures. There are numerous obstacles that need to be addressed before they can be extensively commercialized, however. One of these issues is that of multicomponent mass transport of the reactant and product species. These mass transport problems occur in all of the domains of the fuel cell, including the fuel or gas channels, diffusion layers, catalyst layers, and the membrane. One of the critical domains is the anode diffusion layer whose mass transport issues can negatively affect the transport in the membrane, cathode catalyst layer, and anode fuel channel. Mass transport issues affect the performance of the fuel cell, its stability, and energy density.There have been several attempts to model the anode of a DMFC. One of the first attempts was made by Baxter et al.,1 who developed a model for the porous anode of a liquid fed DMFC. Many other authors have modeled the fuel cell as only having single phase flow in one or two dimensions. 2-7A few recent models of the liquid-feed DMFC have incorporated more of the species in each of the phases. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] At steady state, all three species will be present in both the liquid and gas phases. Wang and Wang developed a one-dimensional two-phase model with multicomponent transport.10 They assumed that the liquid and gas phase are in thermodynamic equilibrium, that the gas phase is saturated with H 2 O and methanol vapor, and used Henry's law type relationships to calculate their vapor pressures. They also assumed the amount of CO 2 in the liquid phase is the liquid saturation concentration. A few later models have performed a similar analysis but instead of as...

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Low methanol crossover and high efficiency direct methanol fuel cell: The influence of diffusion layers

Cited by 41 publications

References 29 publications

Water transport and flooding in DMFC: Experimental and modeling analyses

Water transport and flooding in DMFC: Experimental and modeling analyses

Power generation of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) with low cathodic platinum loading

Modeling of Coupled Multiphase Transport in Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Diffusion Layers

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