Design and Simulation of Air-Breathing Micro Direct Methanol Fuel Cells with Different Anode Flow Fields

Abstract

The design of the anode flow field is critical for yielding better performance of micro direct methanol fuel cells (µDMFCs). In this work, the effect of different flow fields on cell performance was investigated by the simulation method. Compared with grid, parallel and double-serpentine flow fields, a single-serpentine flow field can better improve the mass transfer efficiency of methanol and the emission efficiency of the carbon dioxide by-product. The opening ratio and channel length also have important effects on the cell performance. The cells were manufactured using silicon-based micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technologies and tested to verify the simulation results. The experimental results show that the single-serpentine flow field represents a higher peak power density (16.83 mWcm−2) than other flow fields. Moreover, the results show that an open ratio of 47.3% and a channel length of 63.5 mm are the optimal parameters for the single-serpentine flow field.