Performance assessment of a direct formic acid fuel cell system through exergy analysis

• Direct formic acid fuel cell system is simulated.
• Comprehensive exergetic analysis considering system components.
• Temperatures, pressure, membrane thickness, anode–cathode stoichiometry are investigated.

In this study, performance assessment of a direct formic acid fuel cell system is conducted, including evaluation of a broad set of operating parameters. The fuel cell system is modeled and simulated by using sub-routine developed by Matlab. The system components, such as compressor, humidifier and heat exchangers, are also taken into consideration. Effects of varying operating temperature, pressure, membrane thickness, current density, anode–cathode stoichiometry and reference properties on the system are evaluated to predict the performance as close to real-cases as possible. It is found that increasing the temperature greatly favors the performance of the direct formic acid fuel cell system, low pressure and high reference environment temperature values have the same effect on the cell performance. The maximum exergetic efficiency by broad parametric investigation is estimated as 24%, where the power production is 10 kW.

Performance assessment of a direct formic acid fuel cell system is conducted via exergy analysis. The fuel cell system is modeled and simulated by using Matlab. The effect of the operating temperature, pressure, membrane thickness, current density, anode–cathode stoichiometry and reference properties on system are evaluated to predict the performance as close to real-cases as possible.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide