Assessment of different bio-inspired flow fields for direct methanol fuel cells through 3D modeling and experimental studies

The performance impact of using bio-inspired interdigitated and non-interdigitated flow fields (I-FF and NI-FF, respectively) within a DMFC is investigated. These two flow fields, as well as a conventional serpentine flow field (S-FF, used as a reference), were examined as possible anode and cathode flow field candidates. To examine the performance of each of these candidates, each flow field was manufactured and experimentally tested under different anode and cathode flow rate combinations (1.3 mL/min [methanol] and 400 mL/min [oxygen], as well as 2 and 3 times these flow rates), and different methanol concentrations (0.50 M, 0.75 M, and 1.00 M). To help understand the experimental results and the underlying physics, a three dimensional numerical model was developed. Of the examined flow fields, the S-FF and the I-FF yielded the best performance on the anode and cathode, respectively. This finding was mainly due to the enhanced under-rib convection of both of these flow fields. Although the I-FF provided a higher mean methanol concentration on the anode catalyst layer surface, its distribution was less uniform than that of the S-FF. This caused the rate of methanol permeation to the cathode to increase (for the anode I-FF configuration), along with the anode and cathode activation polarizations, deteriorating the fuel cell performance. The NI-FF provided the lowest pressure drops of the examined configurations. However, the hydrodynamics within the flow field made the reactants susceptible to traveling directly from inlet to outlet, leading to several low concentration pockets. This significantly decreased the reactant uniformity across its respective catalyst layer, and caused this FFs performance to be the lowest of the examined configurations.