Heat and Mass Transfer Characteristics of Direct Methanol Fuel Cell: Experiments and Model

A three dimensional non-isothermal model is developed for anode side of Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) to study the heat and mass transfer characteristics on cell performance. Electrochemical reaction is coupled with cell current density by Tafel kinetic expression. Commercial software “Fluent 6.3”is used for computation. Methanol and temperature distribution in the anode side are predicted. Double channel flow field is used to investigate the methanol distribution and its effect on cell performance. Methanol and water crossovers in the cell are the major controlling parameters which control the cell performance. The model is also used to predict the methanol crossover effect on Fuel Utilisation Efficiency (FUE) and cell performance. The cell efficiency increases from 7 to 13% with decreasing methanol concentration of 1 to 0.25 M. Net water transfer coefficient is high at low current density and decreases with increasing current density. Experiments were conducted with varying cell voltage and the model results are compared with experimental data.