Numerical investigation of the effects of fuel cell parameters on the performance in direct ethanol fuel cells

For a cleaner environment, ithas become necessary to develop new energy sources without relying on fossil fuels. Fuel cells are one of today's alternative energy production technologies, where hydrogen and various fuels are used as fuel. Among alcohols that can be used as fuel, ethanol emerges as an attractive fuel for sustainable energy systems. It has been one of the preferred fuels in recent years, with its low toxicity feature, its ability to be produced with renewable processes and its high theoretical energy density, offering many advantages. In this study, a 3D model was created using Comsol Multiphysics program for direct ethanol fuel cell using ethanol as fuel. Unlike most fuel cell models in the literature, the model was created as a complete fuel cell, not a repeat cell. The created model has been verified by comparing it with experimental data in the literature. In order to improve the performance of direct ethanol fuel cell, the effects of temperature, oxidant at the cathode, velocities of air and fuel at the channel inlets, porosity, cathode pressure and membrane thickness were investigated on the validated model. As a result of the study, it has been found that the increase of temperature, the speed of the fuel in the channel inlet, porosity, and cathode pressure increase the performance of the fuel cell, and also the reduction of membrane thickness and the use of oxygen as an oxidant increase the performance of the fuel cell.