Gas-liquid separator for fuel cell using methanol directly as fuel and its operation method

摘要

A recycler for a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) that uses methanol as a direct feed fuel includes: a housing in which a gas-liquid mixture recovered from a stack is accommodated; a rotor rotatably mounted in the housing; and a motor to rotate the rotor, wherein, when the rotor is rotated by the motor, a phase separation occurs such that liquid in the gas-liquid mixture is collected mainly in an outer region of the housing and gas is collected in the center region of the housing due to the centrifugal force. Accordingly, as it is unnecessary to align a liquid outlet port of the housing with a gravitational direction, the recycler can be employed in a mobile apparatus whose orientation occasionally changes. Also, the recycler does not use a membrane whose performance is rapidly reduced over time so that effective performance can be maintained for a long operation time.