Experimental study of a liquid fed direct methanol fuel cell has been conducted in different gravity environments. A small single cell with 5 cm x 5 cm active area has single serpentine channel on the graphite cathode polar plate and 11 parallel straight channels on the graphite anode flow bed. Cell voltage and current have been measured and two-phase flow in anode channels has been in situ visually observed. The experimental results indicate that the effect of gravity on power performance of the direct methanol fuel cell is large when the concentration polarization governs fuel cells operation. Gravitational effect becomes larger at higher current density. Increasing methanol feeding molarity is conducive to weaken the influence of gravity on performance of liquid fed direct methanol fuel cells. Increasing feeding flow rate of methanol solution from 6 to 15 ml/min could reduce the size of carbondioxide bubbles, while the influence of gravity still exist. Transport phenomena inside direct methanol fuel cells in microgravity is also analyzed and discussed.
Experimental investigation of performance of a miniature direct methanol fuel cell in short-term microgravity
Experimentelle Untersuchung der Leistung einer DMFC-Miniaturbrennstoffzelle bei kurzzeitiger Mikrogravitation
International Topical Team Workshop on Two-Phase Systems for Ground and Space Applications, 5 ; 347-352
Microgravity Science and Technology ; 22 , 3
2010
6 Seiten, 5 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 16 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Experimental studies of a direct methanol fuel cell
Online Contents | 2005
|Systematic Experimental Analysis of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell
Online Contents | 2007
|Direct methanol fuel cell technology
TIBKAT | 2020
|