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Membrane‐less micro fuel cell system design and performance: An overview
Author(s) -
Hanapi I.H.,
Kamarudin S.K.,
Zainoodin A.M.,
Hasran U.A.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.4804
Subject(s) - proton exchange membrane fuel cell , membrane , nafion , unitized regenerative fuel cell , direct ethanol fuel cell , fuel cells , regenerative fuel cell , electrolyte , engineering , process engineering , materials science , waste management , chemistry , chemical engineering , electrochemistry , biochemistry , electrode
Summary Researchers interest in using fuel cells as a power source has grown because fuel cells are environmentally friendly. However, fuel cells still present challenges due to their performance and cost. This limits the commercialization of fuel cell systems, particularly in liquid fuel cells. One of the major obstacles is the Nafion membrane. The Nafion membrane is extremely expensive and causes the “fuel crossover phenomenon.” Therefore, researchers have proposed a membrane‐less fuel cell that eliminates the need of a membrane in the system mainly in micro fuel cells. Membrane‐less fuel cell has shown an improvement on power density by approximately 12% compared with conventional type of proton electrolyte membrane fuel cell. However, there still a lack of information on system design and performance. Therefore, the main objective of this review is to present an extensive study focusing on the geometrical system design and performance of a membrane‐less fuel cell system. It also presents the different types of membrane‐less fuel cell systems. Lastly, it highlights the current problems and potentials to improve the performance of the system. Finally, it is observed that the cost of a membrane fuel cell can be reduced by 20% to 40% compared with the conventional type of fuel cell.