SET Proceedings 2978-4387 Caravel Press 10.65582/set.2012.075 2012.075 Experimental Analysis of a Small-Scale Flowing Electrolyte-Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Stack KablouYashar CruickshankCynthia A. MatidaEdgar HamdullahpurFeridun Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1S 5B6 Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3G1 02092012 11 1 978-1-995850-02-3 743 751 2 September 2012 © 2012 Copyright WSSET 2012

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.

 2 to 5 September 2012 11th International Conference on Sustainable Energy Technologies SET2012 11 Vancouver, Canada