Experimental measurements of fuel and water crossover in an active DMFC

Li, Xianglin; Miao, Zheng; Marten, Lauren; Blankenau, Isaac

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.11.027

Title: Experimental measurements of fuel and water crossover in an active DMFC

Journal Article · Sat Nov 21 00:00:00 EST 2020 · International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.11.027· OSTI ID:1848791

Li, Xianglin ^[1]; Miao, Zheng ^[2]; Marten, Lauren ^[1]; Blankenau, Isaac ^[1]

Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (United States)
North China Electric Power Univ., Beijing (China)

This work measured polarization curves as well as the high-frequency resistance of active direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) operates at around 80 °C with active controls of temperature, methanol concentration, airflow rate, and relative humidity. The relative humidity of the air did not have noticeable impacts on the fuel cell unless the operating temperature was near the evaporation temperature of water (100 °C). The hydrophobic water management layer (WML) between the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) and cathode air channel increases the mass transfer resistance and improves the water retention in MEA. Adding a WML increased the peak power density, decreased the ohmic resistance, and improved the fuel efficiency of the fuel cell, especially when it operated near 100 °C. This study also quantitatively measured methanol and water crossover as well as the fuel efficiency at different operating currents. The fuel efficiency increased significantly with the increase of the current density. Using a hydrophobic fuel management layer (FML) between the anode fuel channel and MEA reduced the fuel and water crossover rates and increased the ohmic resistance due to the decrease of the water content of the Nafion membrane. The FML improved fuel efficiency by reducing the methanol crossover. The combination of the FML and WML enabled the steady operation of DMFC using highly concentrated methanol solutions (up to 75 wt%).

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0008440

OSTI ID:: 1848791

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2325496

Journal Information:: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Vol. 46, Issue 5; ISSN 0360-3199

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Title: Experimental measurements of fuel and water crossover in an active DMFC

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