Investigation of μDMFC (micro direct methanol fuel cell) with self-adaptive flow rate

The objective of this paper is to investigate the performance characteristics of μDMFC (micro direct methanol fuel cell) using a novel concept of self-adaptive anode feeding pattern, which can be controlled by detecting the operating current. A comprehensive analysis, including polarization curve, methanol permeation current, mass transport efficiency and CO2 volume fraction, is conducted to investigate the characterization of anode flow rate in different current regions. A metal-based μDMFC with the active area of 0.64 cm2 is designed, fabricated and tested. Also, the circuit implementation is proposed. The results reveal that the cell with self-adaptive flow rate represents better stability and responding ability compared to the μDMFC with the constant flow rate.