Enhancement of anode performance for alkaline-acid direct glycerol fuel cells

• DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.07.069
• Publication Date: 2020-07-24T11:40:00Z
• Authors: Ponkarnan Sangkheaw; Supaporn Therdthi...; Apichai Therdthia...; Nutthapon Wongyao; Sarayut Yongprapat
• Keywords: Nafion; Power density; Open-circuit voltage

Abstract An alkaline-acid direct glycerol fuel cell (AA-DGFC) was proposed for a portable power generating device that requires high power density. A good design of cell components and optimum cell operating conditions are the key factors to yield high performance of fuel cells. In this work, AA-DGFC with Pt/C anode catalyst showed outstanding performance with open-circuit voltage as high as 1.72V and the peak power density of 330 mWcm−2 which is about 2.7 times higher than the performance of a typical anion exchange membrane direct glycerol fuel cell (AEDGFC). The operating conditions providing the best performance were at glycerol to NaOH mole ratio of 1:5, 1.0M glycerol concentration, an anolyte volumetric flow rate of 1mLmin-1 and cell temperature of 80 °C. For the design of the cell component, the optimum Nafion ionomer content in the anode microporous layer was 20 wt%. Among the Au-based catalysts at the anode studied Au/C, Au–Ni/C and Au–Ag/C, the Au–Ni/C outperformed the others with the power density of 142 mWcm−2.