"This project investigates the effect of membrane thickness on the performance and durability of a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) using a commercially available Celtec®P-1000 PBI-based membrane electrode assembly (MEA). The PBI-based membranes tested were the 100µm, the standard thickness, 200µm and 250µm thick. With various methanol feed concentrations and cathode feeds, oxygen and air, the PBI-based MEAs were operated between 160 and 180°C with vaporized methanol feed. Results showed that the DMFC performance increased with temperature and with PBI membrane thickness. The optimal concentration for the 100µm membrane was at 5M while the best performance with the 200µm membrane was obtained at 3M. The 250µm membrane looked like it could have had better performance than the 200µm, but unfortunately experimental issues didn’t allow completion of these results."
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:wpi.edu/oai:digitalcommons.wpi.edu:etd-theses-2130 |
| Date | 19 December 2013 |
| Creators | Suarez, Matthew |
| Contributors | Ravindra Datta, Advisor, , |
| Publisher | Digital WPI |
| Source Sets | Worcester Polytechnic Institute |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Masters Theses (All Theses, All Years) |
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