4.8 Article

Passive vapor-feed direct methanol fuel cell using sintered porous metals to realize high-concentration operation

Journal

APPLIED ENERGY
Volume 136, Issue -, Pages 143-149

Publisher

ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.09.045

Keywords

Direct methanol fuel cell; Vapor-feed; Passive; Sintered porous metal; Neat methanol; Pervaporation membrane

Funding

  1. National Natural Science Foundation of China [51475172, 51275180]
  2. Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province [S2013040016899]
  3. Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [2013ZM0003]
  4. Open Fund of Shanghai Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacture for Thin-Walled Structures [2013001]

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The use of methanol vapor is helpful to reduce the effect of methanol crossover in a direct methanol fuel cell. This study develops a passive vapor-feed direct methanol fuel cell (VF-DMFC) based on a pervaporation membrane and sintered porous metals which act as functional layers for effective control of the mass transfer process. The feasibility of using this method is experimentally validated. For the cathode, a sintered porous metal-fiber plate (SPMFP) with great hydrophobicity is used as a water management layer to enhance water back diffusion from the cathode to the anode. Results indicate that the use of a SPMFP promotes a higher cell performance especially when a higher methanol concentration is used. The highest peak power density of 19.3 mW/cm(2) is achieved at an ambient temperature when 12 M methanol is supplied. Neat-methanol operation is also viable under this condition. The cathode current collector (CC) with a window-like pattern yields a higher cell performance than the parallel-channel. For the anode, the use of a hydrophilic sintered porous metal-powder plate (SPMPP) embedded in the anode CC reduces the cell performance due to limitation of methanol delivery. This work also reports the influences of methanol concentration and vapor chamber temperature. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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