Numerical investigation on transport characteristic of air breathing direct methanol fuel cell

A two-dimensional two-phase non-isothermal mass transport model is developed in this paper for the air breathing direct methanol fuel cell(DMFC). The self-made computer code is used to simulate the heat and mass transport characteristic which is coupled with electro-chemical reactions. The effects of temperature of the inlet methanol solution, temperature of the air, and the feeding concentration of methanol on the performance of the fuel cell are investigated. The numerical results show that the cell performance can be enhanced at a higher temperature of the inlet methanol solution and the air. Cell performance at the higher cell current densities can be improved with a higher feeding concentration of methanol.