Performance evaluation of a passive direct methanol fuel cell

Abstract

The design, fabrication and performance evaluation of a passive direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) operated at ambient condition with an active area of 7.5 cm2 is studied in this research. The fuel cell is air-breathing and passive without any external pumps or auxiliary devices. Oxygen is taken from the surrounding air and methanol is stored in a built-in reservoir at the anode side. It was tested with methanol of various concentrations, ranging from 1 to 5 M. It was found that cell performance improved with higher methanol concentrations. Power density of 3.5 mW cm-2 was achieved with 4 M methanol at a voltage of 0 2 V. This study also presents the performance of the cell tested for different types of design assemble and current collector. The main contribution of this study is the ideas and possibilities in fabrication of micro DMFC in component assemble point of view in order to enhance the power performance and all the possibilities was proofed with data from experiments. © 2009 Asian Network for Scientific Information.