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Title:	Modeling and optimisation of direct methanol fuel cell via cell network
Authors:	Azlyana Ismail (P59596)
Supervisor:	Siti Kartom Kamarudin, Prof. Dr.
Keywords:	Direct methanol fuel cell Fuel cell Cell network Dissertations, Academic -- Malaysia Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia -- Dissertations
Issue Date:	30-Jun-2016
Description:	Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is one of the promising energy resources that can serve as an alternative to fossil fuel-generated energy. Other than that, it also can be considered as a sustainable source of renewable energy because of the source of the fuel is methanol. Besides that, many researchers proved that DMFCs are a suitable power source for portable energy applications. This is because DMFCs can be operated at low working temperatures, do not require electricity to recharge, use a quick refuelling system and can be designed for longer cell lifetime. However, there are issues remain unresolved today in DMFC system. Various researchers developed numerous techniques to upgrade DMFC system in order to overcome the problem faced by DMFC. Towards improving and optimising the performance of DMFC, there are many design and fabrication issues to be considered including flow field design, material selection, fabrication method, fuel delivery, oxidant supply condition and etc. In this study, the analysis of each layer in DMFC was performed in order to accomplish the goal of the research. The main goal of the study is to develop a cell network of DMFC for the specific target of power and current for the application of small devices such as cell phone. Hence, to achieve the main goal, a few objectives were set in order to have the optimised model before development of cell network. Initially, a single cell was analysed and a conceptual design for this single cell was developed. The result showed the single cell was able to generate up to 62 mA/cm2 of current density with 0.27 V of voltage. The result was compared with the experimental work from previous study. It showed that their result is slightly higher than the conceptual design in this study. Subsequently, mass and energy balance were performed for a single cell to determine the amount of fuel and oxygen consumption, as well as the carbon dioxide generation. Based on the analysis, it was found that 3.196 g of methanol solution (1M) and 0.531 g of oxygen are required to produce the targeted power for a single cell. Besides, 0.056 g of carbon dioxide was produced in single cell during the reaction. Based on liquid feed passive DMFC, a single cell was then optimised to obtain the maximum power output. In this section, each layer of DMFC was studied and analysed. The trends of methanol and oxygen flow in the DMFC system were presented based on the developed equations. Based on the analysis, the maximum power density for single cell is 48 mW/cm2 using 4M of methanol concentration, operating at 60oC. The result reflected to 0.26 V and 190 mA/cm2 of voltage and current density respectively for a single cell. Subsequently, a cell network of DMFC was developed and optimised which consisted of 16 cells of DMFC in series arrangement to achieve the targeted current and voltage of 1400 mA and 3.7 V, respectively. The result showed that the active area for each DMFC was calculated as 8 cm2 (2.83cm × 2.83cm) for single cell. Finally, the economic analysis was also presented. The estimated cost of the cell network was RM 5,430.70 for a 1 set of the network with the power of 5.29 watt produced, reflected to RM 42.43/cm2 of active area.,Ph.D.
Pages:	236
Publisher:	UKM, Bangi
Appears in Collections:	Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment / Fakulti Kejuruteraan dan Alam Bina

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