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http://dx.doi.org/10.7316/KHNES.2012.23.3.243

Development of a Lightweight 200W Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Stack for UAV Applications and Study of its Operating Characteristics (II)  

Kang, Kyung-Mun (School of Mechanical Engineering, Inha Univ.)
Park, Sung-Hyun (School of Mechanical Engineering, Inha Univ.)
Gwak, Geon-Hui (School of Mechanical Engineering, Inha Univ.)
Ji, Hyun-Jin (Department of Defense Advanced R&D Center, Agency for Defense Development)
Ju, Hyun-Chul (School of Mechanical Engineering, Inha Univ.)
Publication Information
Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society / v.23, no.3, 2012 , pp. 243-249 More about this Journal
Abstract
A lightweight 200W direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack is designed and fabricated to power a small scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The DMFC stack consists of 33-cells in which membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) having an active area of 88 $cm^2$ are sandwiched with lightweight composite bipolar plates. The total stack weight is around 3.485 kg and stack performance is tested under various methanol feed concentrations. The DMFC stack delivers a maximum power of 248 W at 13.2 V and $71.3^{\circ}C$ under methanol feed concentration of 1.2 M. In addition, the voltage of individual cell in the 33-cell stack is measured at various current levels to ensure the stability of DMFC stack operations. The cell voltage distribution data exhibit the maximum cell voltage deviation of 28 mV at 15 A and hence the uniformity of cell voltages is acceptable. These results clearly demonstrate that DMFC technology becomes a potential candidate for small-scale UAV applications.
Keywords
Direct methanol fuel cell, DMFC; Unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV; Fuel cell stack; Methanol crossover;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 2  (Citation Analysis)
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