MODELING AND SIMULATION OF METHANOL CROSSOVER EFFECT IN THE DIRECT METHANOL FUEL CELL (DMFC)

The interest in direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is based on their potential for
energy saving and cleaner energy production. However, there are some limitations
that DMFC has to overcome before it can become one of the main alternative power
sources in the market.
This project will focused on the methanol crossover effect as one of the limitation
that DMFC have. CFD model was developed using Ansys Fluent PEM Fuel Cell
Module to study and understand the behaviour of the effect. Temperature will be the
main varying parameters that will be studied for this project.
Simulation results show that methanol crossover significantly increases the cathode
overpotential at low current density but it is reduced when the current density is
increased to a certain amount of value.