A comparative study of approaches to direct methanol fuel cells modelling

Fuel cell modelling has received much attention over the past decade in an attempt to better understand the phenomena occurring within the cell. Mathematical models and simulation are needed as tools for design optimization of fuel cells, stacks and fuel cell power systems.Analytical, semi-empirical and mechanistic models for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) are reviewed. Effective models were until now developed describing the fundamental electrochemical and transport phenomena taking place in the cell. More research is required to develop models that can account for the two-phase flows occurring in the anode and cathode of the DMFC.The merits and demerits of the models are presented. Selected models of different categories are implemented and discussed. Finally, one of the selected simplified models is proposed as a computer-aided tool for real-time system level DMFC calculations.