Power loss and its effect on fuel cell performance

Abstract Fuel cell performance and the power are influenced by factors referred to as “power loss”. In fuel cells, there are two kinds of power losses: one is dominated by the electric resistance between the electrodes, which is called as leak resistance, and the other is dominated by mass diffusion between the anode and cathode, i.e. “crossover”. In this work, we analyse the two kinds of power losses and discuss how they influence fuel cell performance. The power loss of a fuel cell caused by crossover is described by a new parameter Pleak. The practical performance curve of direct methanol fuel cells using different types of membrane materials are modelled by a mathematical equation describing the power loss and crossover effect. This equation is used to estimate the methanol crossover flux.

[1]  Detlef Stolten,et al.  Recent developments of the measurement of the methanol permeation in a direct methanol fuel cell , 2002 .

[2]  R. Kee,et al.  A general mathematical model for analyzing the performance of fuel-cell membrane-electrode assemblies , 2003 .

[3]  Muzhong Shen,et al.  The characteristics of power generation of static state fuel cells , 2003 .

[4]  Chao-Yang Wang,et al.  Mathematical Modeling of Liquid-Feed Direct Methanol Fuel Cells , 2003 .

[5]  V. Antonucci,et al.  Investigation of grafted ETFE-based polymer membranes as alternative electrolyte for direct methanol fuel cells , 2003 .

[6]  Keith Scott,et al.  The degree and effect of methanol crossover in the direct methanol fuel cell , 1998 .

[7]  The General Rule of Power Converted from Chemical Energy to Electrical Energy , 2004 .

[8]  Keith Scott,et al.  Performance and modelling of a direct methanol solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell , 1997 .

[9]  Viral S. Mehta,et al.  Review and analysis of PEM fuel cell design and manufacturing , 2003 .

[10]  J. Zhang,et al.  Modeling the Effects of Methanol Crossover on the DMFC , 2004 .

[11]  Eugene S. Smotkin,et al.  Methanol crossover in direct methanol fuel cells: a link between power and energy density , 2002 .

[12]  Signe Kjelstrup,et al.  Ion and water transport characteristics of Nafion membranes as electrolytes , 1998 .

[13]  K. S. Dhathathreyan,et al.  Direct methanol fuel cells: determination of fuel crossover in a polymer electrolyte membrane , 2003 .

[14]  A. Heinzel,et al.  Estimation of the membrane methanol diffusion coefficient from open circuit voltage measurements in a direct methanol fuel cell , 2002 .

[15]  Shimshon Gottesfeld,et al.  Water and Methanol Uptakes in Nafion Membranes and Membrane Effects on Direct Methanol Cell Performance , 2000 .

[16]  M. Bartolozzi,et al.  A Comparative Investigation of Proton and Methanol Transport in Fluorinated Ionomeric Membranes , 2000 .

[17]  Xiangyang Zhou,et al.  Evaluation of methanol crossover in proton-conducting polyphosphazene membranes , 2002 .

[18]  Shimshon Gottesfeld,et al.  Methanol transport through Nafion membranes : Electro-osmotic drag effects on potential step measurements , 2000 .