2D analytical model of a direct methanol fuel cell

Analytical model is a valuable tool for understanding the effect of basic parameters on fuel cell performance. In this paper, two-dimensional (2D) full cell model of the direct methanol fuel cell was developed to describe not only electrochemical reactions on the anode and cathode electrodes, but also transport phenomena in fuel cell. Those phenomena included methanol crossover, diffusion of reactants in porous media layers, fluid flow in reactants distributor, etc. The analytical solution of the model was derived. The theoretical prediction of the analytical solution was in agreement with the experimental data. The 2D analytical model provided acceptable accuracy to predict the performance of direct methanol fuel cells. With the aid of the analytical solution, it was found that the methanol concentration decreases almost linearly along the flow direction in the anode channel. Methanol concentration distribution in the anode catalyst layer showed similar variation. The performance of fuel cell at high current density will benefit from enhancing mass transfer of the methanol from the anode channel to the catalyst layer. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.