Performance and stability of single and 6-cell stack passive direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) for long-term operation

Abstract

A passive, air-breathing, 6-cell direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack is designed, fabricated and tested based on the performance of a passive single-cell DMFC. A large methanol reservoir in a hexagonal shape is considered in designing the stack in order to increase the DMFC operation time without any interruption, i.e., to refill the methanol solution. Hence, the ratio of methanol solution volume in the reservoir for the single cell, i.e., 8 ml, and hexagonal stack, i.e., 240 ml, is 1:30. The power output of 500 mW is achieved at 1.5 V using a 5 M methanol solution at room temperature. With a large volume of methanol, i.e., 240 ml of 5 M methanol in the hexagonal stack, it can be operated continuously at 1.5 V for more than 40 h, whereas for a small volume, i.e., 8 ml in a single cell, the operation can reach only 3 h–4 h with a similar reduction of 25% from the initial power output. Moreover, the DMFC stack is used for long-term operation more than 3000 h, and the morphology of MEA is analyzed.