Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 17 (2011) 727729

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Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jiec

Investigation of key parameters inuence on performance of direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC)
Saeed Heysiattalab a, Mohsen Shakeri a, Mehdi Safari b,*, M.M. Keikha c
a

Fuel Cell Research Technology Group, Babol University of Technology, Babol, Iran Islamic Azad University, Aligoodarz Branch, Department of Mechanical Engineering, P. O. Box 159, Aligoodarz, Iran c University of Zabol, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Zabol, Iran
b

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Article history: Received 19 October 2010 Accepted 3 January 2011 Available online 14 May 2011 Keywords: Ethanol fuel cell Current density Power density

Direct ethanol fuel cell has been declared as a new alternative for other fuel cells such as direct methanol fuel cell and proton exchange membrane fuel cells. In this paper, effects of key parameters such as temperature, anode and cathode ow rate, molarity and cathode pressure have been investigated on ethanol fuel cell performance. Maximum power density and fuel cell performance will increase by temperature rising because of ion conductivity, diffusion and reaction rate increase. Molarity augmentation will increase ethanol concentration in catalyst layer and reaction rate which leads to better performance of the cell. Anode and cathode ow rate and cathode pressure will slightly increase fuel cell performance. 2011 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Fuel cells are new power sources which produce electricity without any noise or environmental contamination. Fuel cells are used nowadays for rural, military portable and station applications [1]. There are two kinds of fuel usage in fuel cell, direct and indirect use of fuel. Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) and PEM fuel cell are in use as PEMFC (proton exchange membrane fuel cell) [2]. Direct methanol fuel cells are one of prominent fuel cells which have high current density. Unfortunately direct methanol fuel cells have some technical problems such as methanol toxicness, expensive Pt-based catalysts, and high methanol cross over, thus, there are trends to substitute methanol with other fuels. Ethanol, acid acetic, acetaldehyde and zincair are proposed alternatives [37]. Ethanol with high energy density (8030 W h/kg) which it is higher than methanol and non-toxicness is one of favorites. Ethanol is produced by confrontation and its cross over is less than methanol. Ethanol reduction reaction in alkaline media opposite of acidic media, has 4-electron equation and its by-products is acidic and acetaldehyde which makes 90% of reaction by-product, Thus, in anion exchange media, opposite of acidic media, possibility of ow plates channels blocking (due to two phase ow) is

neglected because there is no carbon dioxide production [5,8]. Most researches have been concentrated on catalyst, because complete oxidation of ethanol is a 12-electron reaction which needs a very active catalyst, but methanol oxidation has a 6electron reaction [911]. Catalysts with Pt-based and effect of Sn content on catalysts has been noticed. It is been cleared that by increasing Sn to Pt ratio fuel cells performance will be better [11]. Polybenzimidazole has been used as membrane in DEFC and was doped with KOH solution. Because of ion conductivity increase, fuel cell performance was improved [12]. Finding optimum operation condition of fuel cell, in different operating condition, is so important, thus it is important to nd the effect of different parameters on performance of DEFC [13]. In this paper effect of molarity, temperature, cathode and anode ow rate and cathode pressure, on performance of the DEFC has been investigated. 2. Experimental procedure Pt/Ru/C catalyst was used for anode side and Pt/C black for cathode side [14]. Catalyst loading on both sides was 4 mg/cm2, Naon 117 was used as membrane and ow channel wide and depth was 1 mm [15]. Cathode and anode ow channel pattern was 5 parallel and 2 parallel serpentine, respectively. The cell was humidied by hot water for 2 h and activated by 1 M ethanol. Active area was 10 cm 10 cm and back plates were made by aluminum. (Fuel cell and testing station is shown in Fig. 1.)

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 861 3672399; fax: +98 861 3672399. E-mail address: ms_safari2005@yahoo.com (M. Safari).

1226-086X/$ see front matter 2011 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jiec.2011.05.037

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power density(mW/cm^2)

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Temp35 Temp45 Temp60

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Fig. 3. Effect of temperature on the maximum power density; ethanol concentration 1 M; anode ow rate 0.05 l/min; cathode ow rate 0.2 l/min; cathode pressure 0.5 bar.

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Molarity0.125M Molarity0.25M Molarity0.375M Molarity0.5M Molarity1M

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Fig. 1. Direct ethanol fuel cell and its test station [16].

current density(mA/cm^2)
Fig. 4. Effect of ethanol concentration on fuel cell performance; temperature 45 8C; anode ow rate 0.05 l/min, cathode ow rate 0.2 l/min; cathode pressure 0.5 bar.

3. Results 3.1. Temperature According to Figs. 2 and 3 fuel cell performance will increase by temperature augmentation, while maximum power density reaches to 16 mW/cm2. Fuel cell performance increase take places in the rst, second and third regions (activation loss, ohmic loss, and concentration loss, respectively). By temperature augmentation, ethanol oxidation reaction and oxygen reduction rate will increase and, also with temperature varying from 35 8C to 60 8C, diffusion phenomena will increase concentration of ethanol, and oxygen in the catalyst layer which leads to ethanol oxidation and oxygen reduction rising. Temperature augmentation will increase conductivity of membrane for H+ ions which will cause to increase of current density and fuel cell performance. Altogether, ethanol oxidation and oxygen reduction reaction rate increase, conductivity of membrane and ethanol and oxygen concentration augmentation in catalyst layer is causes of fuel cell performance increase by temperature augmentation (As shown in Figs. 2 and 3.).

3.2. Ethanol concentration Effect of ethanol concentration increase is illustrated in Fig. 4. With ethanol concentration augmentation; maximum current density will reach 16.73 mW/cm2. Ethanol concentration augmentation leads to reaction rate increase which depends on ethanol concentration. When it is low, adequate ethanol does not reach to catalyst layer, so it suffers more concentration loss. Also, ethanol concentration augmentation will increase diffusion phenomena and ethanol concentration in catalyst layer that leads to better oxidation of ethanol. It seems to be that in 1 M, fuel cell performance and maximum current density decreases because of increasing ethanol cross over. Altogether ethanol concentration augmentation will increase fuel cell performance, because of increasing reaction rate, diffusion phenomena and ethanol concentration in catalyst layer (as shown in Figs. 4 and 5). 3.3. Anode ow rate Generally, ow rates more than 1. Stoichiometric coefcient has little effect on fuel cell performance, and ow rates raising will
18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

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Molarity0.125M Molarity0.25M molarity0.375M Molarity0.5M Molarity1M

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Fig. 2. Effect of temperature on fuel cell performance; ethanol concentration 1 M; anode ow rate 0.05 l/min; cathode ow rate 0.2 l/min; cathode pressure 0.5 bar.

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Fig. 5. Effect of fuel cell molarity on maximum power density of fuel cell; temperature 45 8C; anode ow rate 0.05 l/min; cathode ow rate 0.2 l/min; cathode pressure 0.5 bar.

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0.8 0.7

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voltage(V)

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anode flow 0.025lit/min anode flow 0.05lit/min anode flow 0.1lit/min

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cathode pressure=0.5bar cathode pressure=1bar cathode pressure=1.5bar

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Fig. 6. Effect of cathode pressure on performance of ethanol fuel cell; temperature 45 8C; ethanol concentration 1 M; cathode ow rate 0.2 l/min; cathode pressure 0.5 bar.

current density(mA/cm^2)
Fig. 8. Effect of cathode pressure on performance of ethanol fuel cell; temperature 45 8C; ethanol concentration 1 M; cathode ow rate 0.2 l/min; anode ow rate.

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and 0.2 l/min, respectively while cathode pressure was varied from 0.5 bar to 1.5 bar. Increasing cathode pressure will cause oxygen concentration increase in catalyst layer [17] which led to better oxygen reduction and reaction rate.
air=0.2lit/min air=0.3lit/min air=0.4lit/min

4. Conclusion Based on experiments, temperature has an important effect in fuel cell performance because of increasing reaction rate, diffusion phenomena and conductivity of membrane. By morality augmentation fuel cell performance will raise because of ethanol concentration increase in catalyst layer and diffusion phenomena. Anode and cathode ow rates and cathode pressure will slightly improve fuel cell performance. References
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Fig. 7. Effect of cathode pressure on performance of ethanol fuel cell; temperature 45 8C; ethanol concentration 1 M; anode ow rate 0.05 l/min; cathode pressure 0.5 bar.

increase fuel cell performance slightly which is result of mass transformation from channel to diffusion layer. In fact by current density and fuel usage increase, adequate fuel will not be provided and fuel cell will be faced with lack of ethanol. Anode ow rate rising will increase mass ux to diffusion layer and at last, fuel cell performance will improve, by better mass transformation (Fig. 6). 3.4. Cathode ow rate Cathode ow has a similar effect to anode ow rate; altogether, by cathode ow rate raising fuel cell performance will increase because of better mass transportation and oxygen reduction at cathode (Fig. 7). 3.5. Cathode pressure Fig. 8 illustrates cathode pressure effect on fuel cell performance. While other parameters are constant solution concentration, anode ow rate, cathode ow rate was selected 1 M %5 l/min,