A micro direct methanol fuel cell with self-pumping of liquid fuel

Abstract

This paper introduces a micro direct methanol fuel cell (µDMFC) with an imbedded self-pumping mechanism to deliver liquid fuel. The fuel is propelled without any power consuming component (e.g., a pump), while removing the CO2 bubbles generated by the fuel-cell electrochemical reaction of the system. Furthermore, the pumping rate is self-regulated by the reaction, i.e., by the load. By eliminating the need for a pump and gas/liquid separator, our design allows much simpler systems, which is especially beneficial for miniaturization. Although we test with µDMFC in this paper, the mechanism applies to other hydrocarbon liquid fuels as well.