A Two-Dimensional Two-Phase Model for Direct Methanol Redox Fuel Cell

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Abstract

The cathode flooding problem and the methanol crossover effect, together with the cost and availability of precious-metal catalyst, are major obstacles for the commercialization of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) technologies. The direct methanol redox fuel cell (DMRFC) cathode employs a liquid-based Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺ redox couple which avoids the effect of fuel crossover, cathode flooding and reduces the total platinum group metal content. A two-dimensional two-phase model for DMRFC has been developed to predict the performance of the cell by using simulation software of Comsol Multiphysics4.2a. The results show that increasing the thickness of anode catalyst layer, decreasing the thickness of anode diffusion layer and increasing Fe³⁺ concentration will improve the performance of DMRFC. However, when increasing the thickness of anode catalyst layer above 5×10^-5 m and the concentration of Fe³⁺ higher than 1.41 mol/L, the performance of DMRFC is hardly improved.

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	Articles by authors
	Wang Jia
	Zhang Jing
	Huang Chengde

Keywords： direct methanol redox fuel cell； Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺； methanol； two-dimensional two-phase model

Received 2014-03-20;

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Wang Jia, Zhang Jing, Huang Chengde.A Two-Dimensional Two-Phase Model for Direct Methanol Redox Fuel Cell[J] Chemcial Industry and Engineering, 2016,V33(3): 76-81

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