In this work, the characteristics of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) were investigated under changes of various operating conditions in order to understand the behaviors of the single fuel cell and find the optimal operating conditions. The operati...
In this work, the characteristics of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) were investigated under changes of various operating conditions in order to understand the behaviors of the single fuel cell and find the optimal operating conditions. The operating parameters included the operating temperature. methanol concentration, flow rate, cathode humidification temperature, and so on. The membrane electrode assembly(MEA), with a Pt-Ru(4㎎/㎠) anode catalyst and Pt-black(4㎎/㎠) cathode catalyst, was used for methanol oxidation and oxygen reduction. The methanol in water solution was used as the fuel and the air was used as the oxidant in all experiments. The cell performance was analyzed based on the measurement of the current-voltage and current-power density characteristics expressed by polarization curve.
The results showed that performance of the single cell was enhanced by increasing cell temperature, air flow rate, cathode back-pressure. but the temperature effect of cathode preheater was almost negligible. When cathode backpressure was increased up to 200kPa, the highest single cell power density of 0.178W/㎠ was achieved with 1M methanol feed at 80°C of cell temperature. From this experimental study, it was revealed that changing various conditions can be an important role in suitable operation of DMFC.