Performance and Fuel Efficiency of Portable Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Systems

摘要

Three prototype portable direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) systems currently available in the market, were extensively evaluated under constant power, current, and voltage discharge at different environmental temperatures and humidity. Although these DMFC systems ranging from 20 to 120W have different dimensions, sizes and design features, their fuel efficiency is highly dependent on operating conditions. The energy density (based on fuel) of these DMFC systems varies from 150 to 1200 Wh/Kg at different discharge rates. The power density (based on fuel cell system) changes from 3.5 to 14.3 W/Kg with different types of system design. The system energy density (based on total weight of fuel, water, fuel cartridge and system) increases with operating time; and for 72 hour operation is 413 Wh/Kg (for SFC-C20-MP DMFC system).