Direct methanol polymer electrolyte fuel cell: Analysis of charge and mass transfer in the vapour–liquid–solid system

✍ Scribed by Kai Sundmacher; Keith Scott

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 338 KB
• Volume: 54
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/s0009-2509(98)00344-3

✦ Synopsis

Liquid-feed direct methanol fuel cell systems (DMFC) have a number of advantages over hydrogen fuel cells. For a DMFC no additional fuel processing is necessary, therefore, it has a lower volume and a lower weight, the existing infrastructure for fuel supply and distribution can be utilized and the fuel costs are low. However, a number of technical problems have still to be solved. The most important are the cross-over of methanol through the polymer electrolyte membrane, the removal of carbon dioxide from the anode catalyst layer, and the poor anode kinetics. These aspects are analysed by means of a steady state, isothermal cell model which accounts for the essential mass and charge transport processes in the di!erent fuel cell layers. The model is applied to evaluate experimental current}voltage data which were obtained from a small scale cell fuelled with liquid methanol/water solutions. 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.