The Open Fuel Cells Journal

2011, 4 : 1-6
Published online 2011 May 6. DOI: 10.2174/1875932701104010001
Publisher ID: TOFCJ-4-1

Water Management in Micro Direct Methanol Fuel Cells: Using Integrated Passive Micromixer

Chun-You Lin , Hsien-Chun Meng and C. Fu
Institute of NanoEngineering and MicroSystems, National Tsing-Hua University, No.101, Kuang-fu Rd., Sec.II, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

In a DMFC (direct methanol fuel cell), water management is a critical issue for enhancing DMFC power performance and lifetime. However, the methanol-water mixing tank for water management is difficult to be miniaturized and integrated into a micro-DMFC. This paper proposes an in-fuel cell micromixer, the self-vortical micromixer, which belongs to a passive micromixer, to perform methanol and water mixing inside a micro-DMFC.

Experimental results demonstrate the design, fabrication, and testing results of the self-vortical micromixer integrated with the micro-DMFC, showing that the self-vortical micromixer has high fluidic mixing performance and can be operated in the micro-DMFC as a methanol-water mixing tank for water management of the micro-DMFC. The power performance testing results demonstrate that the single cell of micro-DMFC, with the included self-vortical micromixer, exhibits a maximum power density of 21.27 mW/cm2.

Keywords:

Micro-DMFC, water management, microfluidic micromixer.