Development and performance analysis of a metallic passive micro-direct methanol fuel cell for portable applications

• Tipo: Artigo em Revista Científica Internacional
• Data: 2015

Autores

D. S. Falcão (Autor) FEUP; J. P. Pereira (Autor) Outra; C. M. Rangel (Autor) Outra; A. M. F. R. Pinto (Autor) FEUP

Revista

Título: International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

Vol. 40 Nº 15

Páginas: 5408-5415

ISSN: 0360-3199

Editora: Elsevier

Indexação

ISI Web of Knowledge - 18 Citações

Scopus - 27 Citações

INSPEC

Classificação Científica

FOS: Ciências da engenharia e tecnologias > Engenharia química

Projetos Associados

MICROPILHAS - MICROPILHAS - Miniaturização de Células de Combustível de Metanol Directo: design, modelação e optimização

Outras Informações

ID Authenticus: P-00G-3VK

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.01.034

Abstract (EN): Due to the growing interest on miniaturization for application on portable devices, the Micro Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (Micro-DMFC) proved to have great benefits. Passive fuel cells have extra advantages leading to less complex and cheaper systems. In the present work, an experimental study on the performance of a passive Micro-DMFC with an active area of 2.25 cm(2) working at ambient conditions is described. Several commercially available materials for Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) are tested including materials with low platinum content to achieve lower prices. The effect of methanol concentration on the cell performance is evaluated. The performance is compared with the one obtained using an active Micro-DMFC with the same active area. A optimized design is 'proposed corresponding to a maximum power density, 19.2 mW/cm(2), obtained using a Nafion 117 membrane, 3 mg/cm(2) Pt Ru and 0.5 mg/cm2 Pt as, respectively, anode and cathode catalyst loading, carbon paper as anode gas diffusion layer (GDL) and Sigracet carbon paper with micro porous layer (MPL) as cathode GDL at methanol feed concentration of 3 M. This result higher than the optimal power obtained with the active Micro-DMFC clearly demonstrates that membranes with low catalyst content could be used in passive MicroDMFC with success. This is an important result bearing in mind the use of micro-DMFCs in portable applications. Copyright

Idioma: Inglês

Tipo (Avaliação Docente): Científica

Nº de páginas: 8