(33b) Study of Gas Diffusion Layers in Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that convert chemical energy of a reactor fuel directly into electricity with high efficiency and a minimum of pollution. Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells are among one of the most promising energy sources for transportation and small appliance applications operated on methanol as a fuel. Some of the key materials used in PEM fuel cells are catalysts, membranes, gas diffusion layers (GDLs) and bipolar plates. There is a need for the development of GDLs which can be tailored for continuous commercial scale production of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) to reduce the labor costs of fuel cell manufacture. This study is being conducted for the development of paper and fabric GDLs for the use in the Direct Methanol Fuel cells. DMFC (5 cm2 single cell) operating on methanol and air has been used in this investigation. Membrane used is Nafion 115. The effect of experimental parameters such as cell temperature, methanol concentration and feed rate, catalyst loading etc. have been studied to maximize the cell performance. Comparative studies with other commercially available non-woven and woven GDLs are also presented.