A Numerical Model on the Performance of Microfluidic Fuel Cells for the Transport Phenomena
Yusuf D. Herlambang1, , Kurnianingsih2, Anis Roihatin3, Jin C. Shyu4, Shun C. Lee5
1,3,4,5Mechanical Department, 2Electrical Department
1,2,3State Polytehcnic of Semarang
4,5National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Abstract
Abstract-The objectives of this research numerically studies various effects on the performance of air-breathing microfluidic fuel cells for modeling the transport phenomena. The microfluidic fuel cells having a microchannel width of 1.0 mm and 50 µm in-depth with an electrode spacing of 0.3 mm. The concentration formic acid of 0.3 M, 0.5 M, and 1.0 M mixed with 0.5 M sulfuric acid (supporting electrolyte) in aqueous solution was used as fuel and another inlet a stream of 0.5 M sulfuric acid as an electrolyte which were varied at an inlet flow rate of 0.05, 0.1, and 0.5 mL/min. Firstly, a 3-D microfluidic fuel cell model was built using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1 to simulate the fuel cell performance. Furthermore, both V-I curves obtained from simulation on different volumetric fuel flow rate. The transport phenomena in the microfluidic fuel cells were formulated with continuity equation, momentum equation, species transport equation, and charge equation. The porous media flow in the gas diffusion layer was described by Brinkman equation. The Butler-Volmer equations were applied to get the V-I curves.
Keywords: fuel cell
Topic: Mechanical Engineering