Two-dimensional analytical modelling of passive-feed direct methanol fuel cells

Abstract

Direct methanol fuel cells are regarded nowadays as promising energy sources for portable electronic devices. Numerical models can be very useful for addressing the exploration of the fuel cell performance, without the development of many prototypes, which can be very expensive due to the presence of rear materials. Analytical models are particularly suited for investigating the cell performance with limited computing costs. In this work, a two-dimensional model for assessing the performance of an active-feed direct methanol fuel cell is presented, accounting for electrochemical reactions, mass and heat transfer.