Investigating design parameter effects on the methanol flux in the passive storage of a direct methanol fuel cell

The objective of this study is to investigate the significant interaction effects of design parameters on the methanol flux of a single 4.84 cm2 Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC). This study uses 24 full-factorial designs, a factorial arrangement with four factors at two-levels and one center point. The following factors are considered in this study: the inlet diameter of the inlet flow, the direction of the flow, the fuel cell orientation and the height of the second storage vessel. The inlet diameters of the inlet flow under consideration are 1.5, 2.38 and 4 mm. The directions of the flow are bottom and top. The orientation is selected between vertical and horizontal. The height of the second storage tank varies from 50 mm to 70 mm, in 10 mm intervals. The results show that the direction of the flow has the most significant effect on the greatest methanol flux, and the next most significant factor is the orientation, while the inlet diameter of the inflow and the height of the second storage vessel play only minor roles. However, the interaction between the inlet diameter of the inflow and the height of second storage tank shows a significant effect that must be considered. The results agree with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation results and the literature.