• Membrane Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.44-52
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• 2004

This paper concerns the development of a cationic polymeric membranes for direct methanol fuel cell. The crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes with poly(acrylic acid-co-maleic acid) (PAM) and hydroquinonesulfonic acid (HQSA) as the crosslinking agents were prepared according to the amount of crosslinking agents. The resulting membranes were characterized in terms of methanol permeability, proton conductivity, water content and ion exchange capacity. The methanol permeability and proton conductivity increased with increasing PAM content up to 9 wt% and then decreased. This trend is considered the effect of the cross linking rather than the introduction of hydrophilic groups. When the HQSA contents were varied, no interesting increases of proton conductivity, water content and ion exchange capacity were found.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1193-1200
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• 2001

There are many regulation test methods to be related with engine emissions such as CVS-75, D-13, ECE-15 modes and so on. Most of these modes are consisted of lots of transient conditions that have rapid acceleration, deceleration and cranking modes. In this experimental research, the engine characteristics of cranking, accelerating and power output in a S.I. engine were studied to compare with neat gasoline and alternative fuels of M30 (methanol 30%, aromatic series 32%, non-aromatic 38%) and M50 (methanol 50%, aromatic 30%, non-aromatic 20%) for performance and exhaust emissions. The results show that reformulated methanol fuels are better emissions reduction of 15.7% over than that of neat gasoline fuel especially in HC and CO emissions at cranking mode. And the accelerating performances coincide with the results of distillation curve. CO concentration for M50 fuel is varied in a just little for the condition of slow acceleration. At wide-open throttle condition, brake specific energy consumption of reformulated fuels is increased and thermal efficiency is some what lower than that of gasoline fuel.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.592-596
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• 2009

DAFC(direct alcohol fuel cell) takes the same structure and operational principle with PEMFC(Proton exchange membrane fuel cell). However, DAFC, which uses liquid alcohol instead of hydrogen as fuel, is able to be used as a portable power for small-scaled electronic devices such as MP3, PMP, and mobile phone because alcohol is quite convenient steady-state compound to carry and store it. This paper presents the OCV(open circuit voltage) characteristics of the cases which are alcohol species and different weight rate of ethanol, respectively. The OCV of methanol fuel cell is slightly higher 0.2V than ethanol one, and 8% wt. rate ethanol is rated as the most appropriate fuel for DAFC.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.191-199
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• 2003

Cation exchange polymer electrolyte membrane for the application of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) was studied. Poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA) well known as a methanol barrier in pervaporation separation was used fur the base materials and poly(acrylic acid)(PAA) was used for the crosslinking agent with various concentration. Methanol permeability, ion conductivity, ion exchange capacity, water contents and fixed ion concentration of the membranes were investigated to evaluate the performance of the fuel cell electrolyte membrane. Methanol permeability and ion conductivity of the membranes were decreased with increasing PAA content and were increased over 15% of PAA content. These phenomena would be explained with the introduction of hydrophilic crosslinking agent. The membranes with 15% content of PAA showed methanol permeability of $6.49{\times}10^{-8}/cm^2/s,\; 2.85{\times}10^{-7}CM^2/s$ at $25^{\circ}C,\; 50^{\circ}C$ of operating temperatures, respectively. ion conductivities of the membrane were $2.66{\times}10^{-3}\;S/cm,$ $9.16{\times}10^{-3}\;S/cm$ at $25^{\circ}C,\; 50^{\circ}C$ of operating temperatures, respectively. ion exchange capacity, water content and fixed ion concentration of the membrane were revealed 1.32 meq/g membrane,0.25 g $H_2$O/g membrane and 5.25 meq/g $H_2O$, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.243-249
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• 2012

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.

• 한국전기화학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.07a
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• pp.39-42
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• 2002

• 한국전기화학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.13-13
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• 2003

• 한국전기화학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.49-52
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• 2004

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.173-180
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• 2009

In order to develop a novel polymer electrolyte membrane for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), styrene monomer was graft-polymerized into poly(tetrafluoroethylene perfluoropropyl vinyl ether) (PFA) film followed by a sulfonation reaction. The graft polymerization was prepared by the $\Upsilon$-ray radiation-grafting method. Subsequently, sulfonation of the radiation-grafted film was carried out in a chlorosulfonic acid/1,2-dichloroethane (2 v/v%) solution. The chemical, physical, electrochemical and morphological properties of the radiation-grafted membranes (PFA-g-PSSA) were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The water uptake, ionic conductivity, and methanol permeability of the PFA-g-PSSA membrane were also measured. The cell performances of MEA prepared with the PFA-g-PSSA membranes were evaluated and the cell resistances were measured by an impedance analyzer. The MEA using PFA-g-PSSA membranes showed superior performance for DMFCs in comparison with the commercial Nafion 112 membrane.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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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.