EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF A DIRECT METHANOL FUEL CELL WITH MICROCHANNEL FLOW BEDS

摘要

Fuel cells are an energy conservation technology in the future. In this paper, steady-state experiments were conducted under various operating conditions to investigate the influence of thermophysical parameters on the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) performance. A liquid feed DMFC single cell with active area of 50 cm2 was used. The polymer electrolyte membrane was Nafion 115 in our experiments. 0.4mg/cm2 PtRu/C and 0.4mg/cnr Pt/C were adopted as anode and cathode catalysts, respectively. The single path serpentine flow beds were formed on graphite polar plates of the DMFC. The meandrous channel of the flow bed was microchannel, which equivalent diameter was 0.8mm. An ARBIN FCTS LNR was used as electronic load in external circuit. Our experimental results reveal that parameters such as cell temperature, methanol concentration, flow rate of methanol and pressure of oxygen affect the DMFC performance significantly. The effect of reactants inlet temperature on the cell performance is slight under our experimental condition.