• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제28권5호
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• pp.492-501
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• 2017

A 900 W scale direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack is designed and fabricated for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications. To meet the volume and weight requirements, metallic bipolar plates are applied to the DMFC stack for the first time wherein POS470FC was chosen as bipolar plate material. To ensure good robustness of the metallic bipolar plate based DMFC stack, finite element method based simulations are conducted using a commercial ANSYS Fluent software. The stress buildup and deformation characteristics on bipolar plates and end plates are analyzed in details. The present DMFC stack exhibits the performance of 1,130 W at 32 V and 35.3 A, clearly demonstrating that it could successfully operate for UAVs requiring around 1,000 W of power.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.134-142
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• 2012

A bipolar plate is a major component of a fuel cell stack, which occupies 50~60% of the total weight and over 50% of the total cost of a typical fuel cell stack. In this study, a composite bipolar plate is designed and fabricated to develop a compact and light-weight direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack for a small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) application. The composite bipolar plates for DMFCs are prepared by a compression molding method using resole type phenol resin as a binder and natural graphite and carbon black as a conductor filler and tested in terms of electrical conductivity, mechanical strength and hydrogen permeability. The flexural strength of 63 MPa and the in-plane electrical conductivities of 191 S $cm^{-1}$ are achieved under the optimum bipolar plate composition of phenol : 18%; natural graphite : 82%; carbon black : 3%, indicating that the composite bipolar plates exhibit sufficient mechanical strength, electrical conductivity and hydrogen permeability to be applied in a DMFC stack. A DMFC with the composite bipolar plate is tested and shows a similar cell performance with a conventional DMFC with graphite-based bipolar plate.

• Carbon letters
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• 제4권3호
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• pp.121-125
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• 2003

The Pt-Ru/Carbon as an anode catalyst supported on the commercial activated carbon (AC) having high surface area and micropore was characterized for application of Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC). The Pt-Ru/AC anode catalyst used in this experiment showed the performance of $600\;mA/cm^2$ current density at 0.3 V. The borohydride reduction process using $NaBH_4$, denoted as a process A, showed much higher current and power densities than process B prepared by changing the reduction and washing process of process A. The particle sizes are strongly affected by the reduction process than the specific surface area of raw active carbon and the sizes are almost constant when the specific surface area of carbon are over than the $1200\;m^2/g$. Smaller particle size of catalyst and more narrow intercrystalite distance increased the performance of DMFC.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2009년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.176-179
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• 2009

The performance of direct methanol fuel cells is affected by operating conditions such as, methanol feeding temperatures, methanol concentrations, and methanol flow rates during the operation in different environmental conditions. In this study, effects of the environmental temperature on performance of direct methanol fuel cells have been investigated in order to test a applicability of direct methanol fuel cell to the vehicle. The environmental temperature (ET) was varied from $-20^{\circ}C$ to $+30^{\circ}C$. The inside fuel cell temperature (CT) during test at various operating conditions was monitored and the performance of fuel cell was measured in the I-V polarization curve. With increasing the ET, the performance of the fuel cell was significantly improved and the CT also almost linearly increased. However, at below $0^{\circ}C$ ET, the DMFC showed very poor performance and needed to control CT or methanol feeding temperature (MFT), methanol flow rate(MFR) to obtain enough power of the vehicle.

• 한국정밀공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국정밀공학회 2012년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.583-584
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• 2012

• 한국기계가공학회지
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• 제20권4호
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• pp.57-65
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• 2021

This paper explains a DMFC-Lithium Battery hybrid system applied to a forklift. A conventional Lead Acid battery forklift has several problems: long charging times, short operation times, and frequent battery replacements. As a result, hydrogen-powered forklifts are replacing Lead acid battery-powered forklifts due to their shorter refueling time and longer operation times. However, in doing so, we are confronted with the problem of a high hydrogen refueling infrastructure. A Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC), on the other hand, is an eco-friendly generator that directly converts the chemical energy of methanol into electricity. In general, DMFC is regarded as a small power generator under kW power. In this paper, a DMFC-Battery hybrid system is applied to a 1.5 ton forklift by increasing the power output of the DMFC stack and utilizing the high charge-discharge characteristics of a lithium battery.

• 전기화학회지
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• 제12권2호
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• pp.173-180
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• 2009

DMFC (Direct Methanol Fuel Cell)용의 새로운 고분자 전해질 멤브레인을 개발하기 위하여 스티렌 단량체를 poly(tetrafluoroethylene perfluoropropyl vinyl ether) (PFA) 필름에 그라프트 중합 반응시킨 후에 술폰화 반응을 진행하였다. $\Upsilon$-ray를 이용하여 방사선 그라프트 중합 반응시킨 방사선 그라프트 필름의 술폰화 반응은 chlorosulfonic acid/dichloroethane (5 v/v%) 혼합 용액에서 진행하였다. PFA 그라프트 폴리스티렌 멤브레인 (PFA-g-PSSA)의 화학적, 물리적, 전기화학적 및 형태의 특성은 푸리에 변환 적외선 분광기 (FTIR), 이온전도도 측정기 및 주사전자현미경 (SEM)으로 분석하고 함수율과 메탄올 투과도도 측정하였다. PFA-g-PSSA 멤브레인으로 제작한 MEA의 단위전지 성능을 평가하였고, 전지의 셀 저항은 임피던스 분석 장치를 이용하여 측정하였다. PFA-g-PSSA 멤브레인으로 제조한 MEA는 Nafion 112로 제조한 MEA보다 우수한 DMFC 성능을 나타내었다.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2008년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.33-36
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• 2008

The transient behavior of a passive air breathing direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) operated on vapor-feeding mode is studied in this paper. It generally takes 30 minutes after starting for the cell response to come to its steady-state and the response is sometimes unstable. A mathematical dynamic one-dimensional model for simulating transient response of the DMFC is presented. In this model a DMFC is decomposed into its subsystems using lumped model and divided into five layers, namely the anodic diffusion layer, the anodic catalyst layer, the proton exchange membrane (PEM), the cathodic catalyst layer and the cathodic diffusion layer. All layers are considered to have finite thickness, and within every one of them a set of differential-algebraic governing equations are given to represent multi-components mass balance, such as methanol, water, oxygen and carbon dioxide, charge balance, the electrochemical reaction and mass transport phenomena. A one-dimensional, isothermal and mass transport model is developed that captures the coupling between water generation and transport, oxygen consumption and natural convection. The single cell is supplied by pure methanol vapor from a methanol reservoir at the anode, and the oxygen is supplied via natural air-breathing at the cathode. The water is not supplied from external source because the cell uses the water created at the cathode using water back diffusion through nafion membrane. As a result of simulation strong effects of water transport were found out. The model analysis provides several conclusions. The performance drop after peak point is caused by insufficiency of water at the anode. The excess water at the cathode makes performance recovery impossible. The undesired crossover of the reactant methanol through the PEM causes overpotential at the cathode and limits the feeding methanol concentration.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• 제45권4호
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• pp.391-395
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• 2007

술폰화한 폴리에테르에테르케톤(sPEEK)과 나피온(Nafion) 아이오노머를 혼합한 새로운 전극 바인더를 제조하여 DMFC 용 음극 바인더로서 적용 가능성을 고찰하였다. 새롭게 제조한 혼합 바인더는 높은 수소 이온 전도도와 메탄올 전달 속도 및 낮은 용해도와 우수한 기계적 물성을 나타냈다. 이를 도입한 음극에서 혼합 바인더 함량에 따른 셀 성능을 고찰하였으며, 10 wt% 혼합 바인더를 도입한 음극으로 구성된 셀이 가장 우수한 성능을 나타냈다.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2010년도 춘계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.125.2-125.2
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• 2010

In this paper, both theoretical and experimental investigations have been performed to examine the effects of key operating parameters on the cell performance of a DMFCs (i.e., methanol feed concentration and operating temperature). For experiment, the membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) were prepared using a conventional MEA fabrication method based on a catalyst coated electrode (CCE) and tested under various cell temperatures and methanol feed concentrations. The polarization curve measurements were conducted using in-house-made $25cm^2$ MEAs. The voltage-current density data were collected under three different cell temperatures ($50^{\circ}C$, $60^{\circ}C$, and $70^{\circ}C$) and four different methanol feed concentrations (1 M, 2 M, 3 M, and 4 M). The experimental data indicate that the measured I-V curves are significantly altered, depending on these conditions. On the other hand, previously developed one-dimensional, two-phase DMFC model is simulated under the same operating conditions used in the experiments. The model predictions compare well with the experimental data over a wide range of these operating conditions, which demonstrates the validity and accuracy of the present DMFC model. Furthermore, both simulation and experimental results exhibit the strong influences of methanol and water crossover rates through the membrane on DMFC performance and I-V curve characteristics.