A vapor feed methanol microfluidic fuel cell with high fuel and energy efficiency

In this paper, a prototype of methanol microfluidic fuel cell with vapor feed anode configuration is proposed to improve the fuel and energy efficiency of the conventional liquid feed methanol microfluidic fuel cells. Peak power density of 55.4 mW cm−2 can be achieved with this prototype under room temperature, which is 30% higher than its conventional liquid feed counterpart. Moreover, an energy efficiency of 9.4% is achieved, which is 27.5 times higher than its liquid feed counterpart. This superiority on both cell performance and energy efficiency is directly benefitted from its vapor feed anode configuration, which alleviates the fuel crossover, eliminates the fuel depletion boundary layer, and avoids the bulk anolyte wastage. The tradeoff between cell performance and fuel utilization for conventional liquid feed microfluidic fuel cells is also evaded.