Novel method for investigation of two-phase flow in liquid feed direct methanol fuel cells using an aqueous H2O2 solution

One major issue in the development of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) is the management of the evolving CO2 gas bubbles in the flow fields. These bubbles influence the flow distribution and therefore the power density of a cell. In this paper, a novel method for in situ production of bubbles in a test cell made of perspex is presented. The method is based on the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide solution (H2O2) to oxygen and water in aqueous media at the presence of a catalyst. By using an appropriate H2O2-concentration, the gas evolution rate can be set to same order of magnitude as in real direct methanol fuel cells. This approach allows the simulation of the flow distribution in DMFC by simple low-cost hardware. As no current conducting parts are needed, the whole dummy cell can be made of perspex to ensure a complete visibility of the flow. In a perspex flow cell with an active area of 600 cm2, the flow homogeneity as a function of gas evolution rate, flow field and manifold design was investigated. Experiments show that splayed manifolds have a superior performance concerning flow uniformity compared to other designs. The use of grid structures as a flow field gives good bubble transport at all investigated current densities.