Development of Air Pump for Fuel Cells

In recent years, as the mobile equipment advances, higher output and higher energy density are required of the battery which drives the mobile equipment. As one of the solutions, development of portable fuel cells (DMFC) with methanol used for fuel has been progressed and the fuel cells will be soon put to practical use. The authors have developed a small air pump (0.2W output), which is mounted to DMFC and forcibly feeds air for reactions with methanol. While being oil-less, this air pump achieves an unparalleled small size and high pressure in the world, by adopting a vane rotary type mechanism with two self-lubricating vanes used. In addition, by carrying out dynamic analyses to investigate the vane configuration in the course of developing this pump and by providing several contrivances to the cylinder surfaces on which the vanes slide, low noise and small input were achieved. In this paper, the configuration of developed pump, the developed technique and the results of dynamic analyses, and the pump performance will be reported.