Modelling and Simulation of A Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell: Electrochemical Reactions and Mass Transport Consideration

Abstract

Mathematical modelling was developed for direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) by considering electrochemical reactions and mass transport. The model was validated against experimental data from previous research and showed good agreement with the data. The developed mathematical modelling for this research was based on the Butler-Volmer equation, Tafel equation and Fick’s law. The model was used to investigate parameters such as ethanol concentration and cell operating temperature. The developed mathematical model simulated the data from previous research. Ethanol concentration played a vital role to achieve high-performance DEFC. The higher the ethanol concentration, the higher current could be generated in DEFC. Nonetheless, the higher the usage of the ethanol concentration, the higher the ethanol crossover might occur. The highest current density produced from the fuel cell was at 21.48 mA cm-2, for 2M of ethanol concentration. Operating temperature also affected cell performance. The higher the operating temperature, the higher power density could be generated—the peak power density of 5.7 mWcm-2 at 75 oC with 2M of ethanol. As for ethanol crossover, the highest ethanol crossover was at 12.4 mol m-3 for 3M concentration of ethanol. It proved that higher ethanol concentration led to higher ethanol crossover.

Keywords

• Direct ethanol fuel cell, Ethanol crossover, Mass resistance, Mathematical modelling