Performance and Design Issues of a Silicon Microfabricated Fuel Cell

Direct methanol micro fuel cells (muDMFC) have been extensively investigated for its high energy density which can be used to power electronic circuits in portable devices. In the field of micro power systems, the goal is to have a final device as small and simple as possible. In this way, a passive device, removing ancillary devices such as microfluidic pumps, valves or cooling systems, has been developed in this work. In this case, the methanol and oxygen are supplied by a natural convection flow. The results for different designs are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of such approach for a direct methanol micro fuel cell.