Experimental Analysis of a Small-Scale Flowing Electrolyte-Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Stack

In this paper, the concept of flowing electrolyte-direct methanol fuel cell (FE-DMFC) was further examined experimentally using a small scale five-cell FE-DMFC stack. The stack prototype was manufactured and tested by varying several operating parameters such as stack operating temperature, methanol concentration/flow rate, flowing electrolyte flow rate and air flow rate. Results from these experiments were used to highlight the problems of gas management at the anode, water management at the cathode and most importantly, how the flowing electrolyte improved the overall stack performance. It was verified by the experiment that increasing the electrolyte flow rate and using higher temperatures could significantly increase the stack performance, as expected.