Sulfonic acid-functionalized polymer electrolyte membranes alternative to Nafion(®) were developed. These were hydrocarbon systems, such as blend sulfonated polyetheretherketone (s-PEEK), new generation perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) systems, and composite zirconium phosphate-PFSA polymers. The membranes varied in terms of composition, equivalent weight, thickness, and filler and were investigat...

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The direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is considered a viable power production technology for portable electronics equipment (10’s-100’s watts) and transportation vehicles (10’s-100’s kilowatts). Since methanol is relatively inexpensive and a reformer or other fuel processing equipment is not required for the DMFC, this power system has the potential to be low cost, compact, reliable and fuel eff...

A novel proton exchange membrane has been prepared using sulfonated poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) resin(SPSDR)–polyethylene(PE). The membrane is characterized by FT-IR, SEM and TGA/DSC. Water uptake, oxidative resistance, ionic conductivity and methanol permeability are measured to evaluate its performance in a direct methanol fuel cell. The on-set degradation temp...

Direct fuel oxidization yields major fuel cell power system simplifications and potential performance advantages, particularly for an automotive power plant application. The system simplification is particularly striking when a direct fuel system is compared to an “indirect” fuel cell system in a vehicle (where the fuel on board must be “reformed” and “cleaned” to provide a hydrogen-rich gas “r...

For automotive applications, it is necessary to maximize the fuel conversion efficiency of a PEM direct-methanol fuel cell (DMFC) over the broadest possible dynamic range of power. The research reported here critically examines the efficiency of the DMFC stack when operated over a broad power range. This research establishes a basis for a control strategy that simultaneously: optimizes DMFC fue...

Please cite this article as: Ismail A., Kamaruddin S. K., Daud W. R. W. and Masdar M. S., (2012), Development of conceptual design model of direct methanol fuel cell for a portable application, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 29, 349-354 349 Development of Conceptual Design Model of Direct Methanol Fuel Cell for a Portable Application Azlina Ismail, Siti Kartom Kamarudin*, Wan Ramli W. Daud,...

Direct methanol fuel cells are regarded nowadays as promising energy sources for portable electronic devices. Numerical models can be very useful for addressing the exploration of the fuel cell performance, without the development of many prototypes, which can be very expensive due to the presence of rear materials. Analytical models are particularly suited for investigating the cell performanc...

This paper presents a silicon-based micro direct methanol fuel cell (μDMFC) stack with compact stacked structure and a unique shared anode plate. The μDMFC stack consists of two fuel cells in electrically parallel connection, while the fuel transport is arranged in series. Experimental results show that the μDMFC stack generates a power density of 12.71mW/cm, almost twice as much as that of a s...

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are emerging material class for the past few years due to its tailorability characteristics for various applications. However, the research and development (R&D) of MOFs is still scarce for fuel cell system. This may be due to the several difficulties faced in selecting a good MOFs-based electrolyte, which consequently affects both proton conduction and methanol ...