Investigation of bipolar plate geometry on direct methanol fuel cell performance

Kianimanesh, A.; Yu, Biao; Yang, Qinwen; Freiheit, Theodor; Xue, Deyi; Park, Simon S.

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.08.128

Cited by 27 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Following this assumption, many previous CFD studies were based on the anode side in order to simplify the modeling process and to increase the calculation efficiency [16,[18][19][20]. The present CFD model is also based on the anode side of a DMFC system, which has been reported in our previous experimental work [20].…”

Section: Problem Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Special attention can be paid to the parameter α. Although many CFD studies concentrated only on the anode side based on the assumption that the air amount is enough at the cathode side [16,[18][19][20], the 'sufficiently high' flow rate is still an inaccurate criterion for the air availability, especially when the model is needed to be applied in analyzing the performances of different types of DMFCs. Therefore, the parameter α is introduced to account for the effect of air availability in the present study, to improve the generalization capability of our CFD model without increasing the computation cost, which can be determined by the comparison of experimental and numerical results.…”

Section: Governing Equations and Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the past decades, several mechanical models based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques were proposed to study the energy conversion process of DMFC systems, from one-dimensional [11], two-dimensional [12,13] to three-dimensional (3D) [14][15][16][17][18][19] points of view.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Numerical Investigations of the Combined Effects of Flow Rate and Methanol Concentration on DMFC Performance

Wang

Chen

et al. 2017

Energies

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Abstract:A modified 3D numerical model on the energy conversion process in the anode side of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) system was constructed and validated to published experimental results. Systematic simulations were performed to investigate the underlying mechanisms of the energy conversion process, and the combined effects of inlet flow rate and input methanol concentration were summarized systematically. The increase of flow rate was found to be an effective strategy to accelerate the internal flow fields, while the diffusion layer was proposed to be a critical component in the design of high-performance DMFC. The frontier for optimal conditions of DMFC's output was also determined, which can be helpful to improve the energy conversion performance of DMFC in practical applications.

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Section: Problem Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Governing Equations and Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Numerical Investigations of the Combined Effects of Flow Rate and Methanol Concentration on DMFC Performance

Wang

Chen

et al. 2017

Energies

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“…The reason may be that (i) at increasing cell temperature of 60 to 80°C, the PPD increases up to 40% [21,22] due to high methanol diffusion rate and reduced methanol crossover using thicker diffusion layer and (ii) only anode potential is calculated and other potential losses are not considered. The results of Yuan et al [13] show that DSFF exhibits high PPD.…”

Section: Comparison Of Present Model Results With Literature Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kianimanesh et al [22] and Yu et al [23] carried out experiments and also developed a three dimensional model to investigate the effect of single channel serpentine flow field with varying channel width. They found that the cell with narrowest channel improved peak power by 70% greater than the widest channel width due to high velocity stream, which flushes CO 2 gas bubbles.…”

Section: Original Research Papermentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental and Numerical Study of Serpentine Flow Fields for Improving Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Performance

Sudaroli

Kolar

2015

Fuel Cells

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Methanol crossover is an important issue as it affects direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) performance. But it may be controlled by selecting a proper flow field design. Experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of single, double and triple serpentine flow field configurations on a DMFC with a 25 cm 2 membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with a constant open ratio. A three dimensional model was also developed for the anode of the DMFC to predict methanol concentration and cell current density distributions. Experimental and model results show that at lower methanol concentrations (0.25-0.5M), single serpentine flow field (SSFF) provides high peak power density, while a double serpentine flow field (DSFF) gives high peak power density at a high methanol concentration (1-2M). Single and double serpentine flow fields exhibit the same peak power density (33 mW cm -2 ) at 1M. But the cell efficiency of double serpentine flow field is 12.5% which is 3.5% point greater than single serpentine flow field. This is attributed to reduced mixed potential. triple serpentine flow field (TSFF) shows the lowest peak power density and cell efficiency, which is attributed to high mass transfer resistance.

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Dimensional effect of graphite flow field channels of a direct methanol fuel cell under different operating conditions

et al. 2017

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Direct methanol fuel cells are a potential candidate to replace traditional power sources for portable applications. The flow field design, manufacture, and optimization are of great significance to the cell performance. When the scale of flow channels decreases to the level of submillimeter‐scale, it is favourable to the reactant and product management. This paper focuses on the effectiveness of using a multi‐tooth planing technique to create submillimeter‐scale parallel channels in a graphite sheet. Besides the structural parameters of flow channels, a series of operating parameters are experimentally investigated, including methanol concentration, methanol feed rate, oxygen feed rate, cathode backpressure, and environmental temperature. Results indicate that the prepared channels promote a higher cell performance than the traditional design with a larger scale. It is beneficial to both the anode and cathode performances, but it has a more prominent effect at the anode. The methanol concentration of 4 mol/L yields the best performance. Using a relatively lower methanol feed rate below 0.5 mL/min has a more obvious effect on the fuel cell. The cell performance is insensitive to the change of cathode oxygen feed rate and backpressure especially when the oxygen can be sufficiently supplied. In this case we can use lower levels of oxygen feed rate and cathode backpressure. The cell temperatures and influence of environmental temperature are also discussed.

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Investigation of bipolar plate geometry on direct methanol fuel cell performance

Cited by 27 publications

References 26 publications

Numerical Investigations of the Combined Effects of Flow Rate and Methanol Concentration on DMFC Performance

Numerical Investigations of the Combined Effects of Flow Rate and Methanol Concentration on DMFC Performance

Experimental and Numerical Study of Serpentine Flow Fields for Improving Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Performance

Dimensional effect of graphite flow field channels of a direct methanol fuel cell under different operating conditions

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