Performance Augmentation in Direct Methanol Fuel Cell

摘要

In this work, an analytical mass transfer model is developed for a direct methanol fuel cell with a flowing electrolyte instead of a proton exchange membrane, with a significant advantage of the reduction of methanol crossover, which affects the efficiency of the traditional direct methanol fuel cells. A modified Tafle equation was developed to predict the cell potential and current density relationships of two types of direct methanol fuel cells, one is with a conventional proton exchange membrane and the other is flowing electrolyte. It is shown that by using flowing electrolyte, the direct methanol fuel cells can achieve a significant decrease in methanol crossover with a corresponding increase in efficiency of the cell. Model predictions are in good agreement with the experimental data.