• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.495-509
• /
• 2013

In this study, we develop a one-dimensional (1-D), two-phase, transient-thermal DMFC model to investigate the effect of methanol concentration fluctuation that usually occurs in active-type direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) systems. 1-D transient simulations are conducted and time-dependent behaviors of DMFCs are analyzed under various DMFC operating conditions such as anode/cathode stoichiometry, cell temperature, and cathode inlet humidification. The simulation results indicate that the effect of methanol concentration fluctuation on DMFC performance can be mitigated by proper control of anode/cathode stoichiometry, providing a guideline to optimize operating conditions of active DMFC systems.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2006.05a
• /
• pp.858-861
• /
• 2006

In this paper, a study on the noise reduction in a mobile fuel cell system is presented. Among various fuel cell systems around 20W capacities designed for mobile electronic devices, the active direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) systems have been recently developed. In such systems, the primary noise source is the air pump which provides sufficient air flow ($5{\sim}6$ liter/min) for electrochemical reaction with methanol fuel while the noise contributions from other auxiliary parts are relatively small. Especially, the discrete noise tones generated by the air pump are dominant and those frequency peaks related to the rotor harmonics are needed to be suppressed by a silencer. Therefore. the Herschel/Quinke (HQ) tubes, which use the out-of-phase cancellation of acoustic waves propagating through direct and indirect pathways, are applied to the inlet of the air pump. Performance of noise reduction with HQ silencer is analytically estimated by calculating the transmission. The length and number of thin HQ tubes are optimized to decrease the radiated noise. As a result, the sound pressure level could be successfully reduced by about 10 dB after applying three serially connected HQ tubes.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2012.03a
• /
• pp.211-216
• /
• 2012

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) are the most appropriate for energy source of small robot applications. PEMFC has superior in power density and thermodynamic efficiency as compared with the Direct Methaol Fuel Cell (DMFC). Furthermore, PEMFC has lighter weight and smaller size than DMFC which are very important factors as small robot power system. The most significant factor of mobile robots is weight which relates closely with energy consumption and robot operation. This research tried to find optimum specifications in terms of type, number of cell, active area, cooling method, weight, and size. In order to find optimum 500W PEMFC, six options are designed in this paper and studied to reduce total stack weight by applying new materials and design innovations. However, still remaining problems are thermal management, robot space for energy sources, and so on. For a thermal management, design options need to analysis of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for determining which option has the improved performance and durability.