A silicon-based microfabricated fuel cell running on formic acid vapor as a fuel has been developed to provide on-chip power for MEMS devices, without using any ancillary devices such as heaters, water management, air pumps, etc. As a demonstration instrument, an integrated silicon-based membrane electrode assembly and fuel evaporative structure was packaged in a plastic package to test the vap...

This paper studies the impact of fuel-cell (FC) performance and control strategies on the benefits of hybridization. One of the main weak points of the FC is slow dynamics dominated by a temperature and fuel-delivery system. Although many researchers have investigated the use of different powertrain topologies, component sizes, and control strategies in fuel cell vehicles, a detailed parametric...

The application of microscale principles to devices can lead to orders of magnitude increase in area to volume ratios. In fuel cells, where electrochemical reaction, heat and mass transfer are all surface phenomena, the application of microscale principles could lead to significant breakthroughs in power density, efficiency and cost. In this paper we examine the function of fuel cell components...

Mobile robots are often needed for long duration missions. These include search rescue, sentry, repair, surveillance and entertainment. Current power supply technology limit walking and climbing robots from many such missions. Internal combustion engines have high noise and emit toxic exhaust while rechargeable batteries have low energy densities and high rates of self-discharge. In theory, fue...

*Correspondence: Peiwen Li , Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, The University of Arizona, 1130 North Mountain Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA e-mail: [email protected] In this study, a significant number of experimental tests to proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells were conducted to investigate the effect of gas flow fields on fuel cell performance. Graphite plates w...

In this work, single-stage and two-stage tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC)/gas turbine hybrid cycles are comparatively examined from the energy and exergy viewpoints. For this purpose, mass, energy and exergy balances are applied to all components of the cycles. The behavior of tubular solid oxide fuel cell modeled in this study is validated with the experimental test data of tubular SOFC de...

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are emerging material class for the past few years due to its tailorability characteristics for various applications. However, the research and development (R&D) of MOFs is still scarce for fuel cell system. This may be due to the several difficulties faced in selecting a good MOFs-based electrolyte, which consequently affects both proton conduction and methanol ...

In the past few decades, hydrogen fuel cells have been suggested as an alternative energy source and engineered for a range of applications including automotive, stationary power, and consumer electronics. However, the durability and reliability of hydrogen fuel cells still remain major hurdles for its wider application. Several researchers have investigated the diagnosis of faults in fuel cell...

Polymer electrolyte membranes (PEM) and Pt-based catalysts are two crucial components which determine the properties and price of fuel cells. Even though, PEM faces problem of fuel crossover in liquid fuel cells such as direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) and direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC), which lowers power output greatly. Here, we report a DBFC in which a polymer fiber membrane (PFM) was u...