Abstract
Clogging of anode flow channels by CO2 bubbles is a vital problem for further performance improvements of the micro direct methanol fuel cell (μDMFC). In this paper, a new type anode structure using the concept of the non-equipotent serpentine flow field (NESFF) to solve this problem was designed, fabricated and tested. Experiments comparing the μDMFC with and without this type of anode flow field were implemented using a home-made test loop. Results show that the mean-value, amplitude and frequency of the inlet-to-outlet pressure drops in the NESFF is far lower than that in the traditional flow fields at high μDMFC output current. Furthermore, the sequential images of the CO2 bubbles as well as the μDMFC performance with different anode flow field pattern were also investigated, and the conclusions are in accordance with those derived from the pressure drop experiments. Results of this study indicate that the non-equipotent design of the μDMFC anode flow field can effectively mitigate the CO2 clogging in the flow channels, and hence lead to a significant promotion of the μDMFC performance.
Highlights
The micro direct methanol fuel cell fabricated using microtechnologies [1] has drawn increasing interest for power applications in advanced portable electronics because of its benefits such as low pollution emission, high theoretical power density [2], high efficiency [3] and relatively simple system features [4,5,6,7]
Showed very different features with the change of the fuel cell current. It can be found from Figure.6(a) that the mean-value, amplitude and frequency of the pressure drop curves of non-equipotent serpentine flow field (NESFF) and equipotent serpentine flow field (ESFF) were very close at the current of 20 mA, because that the flow patterns in anode flow field were mainly bubbly flow at low fuel cell current, which conceal the bubble clogging effects in the micro channels
This paper reports on the effects of anode flow field design on CO2 bubble clogging
Summary
The micro direct methanol fuel cell (μDMFC) fabricated using microtechnologies [1] has drawn increasing interest for power applications in advanced portable electronics because of its benefits such as low pollution emission, high theoretical power density [2], high efficiency [3] and relatively simple system features [4,5,6,7]. The structure of anode flow field need to be optimized in order to mitigate the clogging of CO2 bubbles and improve fuel cell performance. In the middle and export region of the flow field [14], a new anode flow field pattern for μDMFC with gradual change in width along the micro channel was demonstrated in the present work. We call this type of flow field as non-equipotent flow field in order to distinguish it from the conventional flow field patterns. Preliminary results showed that the μDMFC performance was effectively promoted using the designing concept of non-equipotent flow field
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