Kimitaka Yamane

Measurement of methanol crossover in direct methanol fuel cell

In a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) with a Nafion membrane, a methanol solution fed to the anode permeates to the cathode. This phenomenon causes the depolarization loss at the cathode and the DMFC performance grows worse. In this research, by continuously measuring the concentration of CH3OH, CO and CO2 in the exhaust gas of the cathode, the amount of methanol crossover was determined. Also, the effect of the thickness of polymer electrolyte membrane and the concentration of methanol solution on the amount of methanol crossover were investigated.

Power-generation characteristics of hydrogen fuel cell with dead-end system

Abstract In polymer electrolyte fuel cells fueled by hydrogen, the hydrogen is generally supplied while flowing at the anode and the residual hydrogen in the exhaust gas is circulated back to the supply line of hydrogen or burnt away. When the exit of the anode is blocked up, the fuel cell becomes a dead-end system, and improvement in efficiency and simplification of the system are expected. The results obtained experimentally and the problems of the hydrogen dead-end fuel cell are reported in this paper.