Effect of geometrical configurations on alkaline air-breathing membraneless microfluidic fuel cells with cylinder anodes

Biao ZHANG; HaoNan WANG; Xun ZHU; DingDing YE; Qiang LIAO; PangChieh SUI; Ned DJILALI; Li JIANG; YaLu FU

doi:10.1007/s11431-018-9341-4

SCIENCE CHINA Technological Sciences

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SCIENCE CHINA Technological Sciences, Volume 62, Issue 3: 388-396(2019) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-018-9341-4

Effect of geometrical configurations on alkaline air-breathing membraneless microfluidic fuel cells with cylinder anodes

Biao ZHANG^1,2,?, HaoNan WANG^1,2,?, Xun ZHU^1,2,*, DingDing YE^1,2,*, Qiang LIAO^1,2, PangChieh SUI³, Ned DJILALI⁴, Li JIANG^1,2, YaLu FU^1,2

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ReceivedMay 21, 2018
AcceptedAug 26, 2018
PublishedDec 26, 2018

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Abstract

Membraneless microfluidic fuel cells (MMFCs) outperform traditional membrane-based micro-fuel cells in membraneless architecture and high surface-to-volume ratio and facile integration, but still need substantial improvement in performance. The fundamental challenges are dictated by multiphysics regarding cell configurations: the interaction of fluid flow, mass transport and electrochemical reactions. We present a numerical research that investigates the effect of geometrical configurations (rod arrangement, cell length, rod diameter and spacer configuration) on the fuel transport and performance of an alkaline MMFC with cylinder anodes. Modeling results suggest that the staggered rod arrangement outperforms the in-line case by 10.1% at 50?μL?min^–1. Cell power output and power density vary nearly linearly with the cell length. In the case with 0.7?mm anodes and 0.3?mm spacers, the increased flow resistance at anode region drives the fuel to intrude into the spacer zone, leading to fuel transport limitation at downstream. The feasibility of non-spacer configuration is demonstrated, and the power density is 93.7% higher than the baseline due to reduced cell volume and enhanced fuel transport. In addition, horizontal extension of the anode array is found to be more favorable for scale-up, the maximum power density of 181.9?mW?cm^–3 is predicted. This study provides insight into the fundamental, and offers guidance to improve the cell design for promoting performance and facilitating system integration.

Funded by

the International Cooperation and Exchange of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant,No.,51620105011)

National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant,No.,51776026)

Innovation Support Foundation for Returned Overseas Scholars

Chongqing

China(Grant,No.,cx2017058)

Project(Grant,No.,2018CDXYDL0001)

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the International Cooperation and Exchange of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51620105011), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51776026), the Innovation Support Foundation for Returned Overseas Scholars, Chongqing, China (Grant No. cx2017058), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2018CDXYDL0001). Sui Pang-Chieh acknowledges the support from the Visiting Scholar Foundation of Key Lab of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems in Chongqing University (Grant No. LLEUTS-201504). Ned Djilali acknowledges the support in part from the Canada Research Chairs Program.

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Supporting Information

The supporting information is available online at tech.scichina.com and www.springerlink.com. The supporting materials are published as submitted, without typesetting or editing. The responsibility for scientific accuracy and content remains entirely with the authors.

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Figure 1
(Color online) Schematic illustration of the computational domain for baseline case (for interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article).
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Figure 2
(Color online) Validation of predicted (a) cell performance and (b) electrode potentials against experimental data.
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Figure 3
(Color online) Fuel concentration distribution in x-z cross sections at y = 5 (a) and 35?mm (b) for the staggered case, and at y = 5 (c) and 35?mm (d) for the in-line case. The flow rate is 200?μL?min^–1, and the cell voltage is 0.3?V. The anodes are labeled according to their relative positions.
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Figure 4
(Color online) Maximum power density for the staggered and in-line cases, respectively. The insert is the relative improvement.
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Figure 5
(Color online) Effect of cell length on (a) the maximum power output/density at 200?μL?min^–1, and (b) the corresponding anode current density distribution at the cell voltage of 0.3?V. Dashed lines are the averaged values for each case.
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Figure 6
(Color online) Effect of rod diameter on the (a) maximum power density at 200?μL?min^–1, and (b) anode current density distribution at 0.3?V.
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Figure 7
(Color online) (a) Velocity and (b) fuel concentration distribution of cells with 6, 3, and 0 spacers in x-z cross section at y = 20?mm. The flow rate is 200?μL?min^–1, and the cell voltage is 0.3?V.
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Figure 8
(Color online) Effect of spacer configuration on the performance output. The flow rate is kept at 200?μL?min^–1.
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Figure 9
(Color online) Predicted cell performance for vertical and horizontal arrangements.

Table 1 Table 1 Geometrical parameters of the baseline case

Parameter	Value (mm)
Main flow channel length (y) × height (z) × width (x)	40.0 × 6.3 × 2.5
Inlet channel length (x) ×height (z) × width (y)	3.0 × 0.9 × 1.5
Outlet channel length (x) ×height (z) × width (y)	1.0 × 6.3 × 1.0
Anode diameter	0.526
Spacer diameter	0.5
Centerline spacing betweenadjacent rods	0.9
Cathode catalyst layer thickness	0.04
Gas diffusion layer thickness	0.28

Table 2 Table 2 Nomenclature of terms in the governing equations

Term	Description
a	Density of catalytic active sites
C_f	Local fuel concentration
C_f,ref	Reference fuel concentration
C_O	Local oxygen concentration
C_O,ref	Reference oxygen concentration
D_f	Fuel diffusivity
$D_{O}^{eff}$	Effective oxygen diffusivity
F	Faraday constant
i_0,f	Exchange current density of formate oxidation reaction
i_0,O	Exchange current density of oxygen reduction reaction
M	Molecular mass of oxygen
n	Transferred electrons per molecule
n_t	Number of electrons transferred at the limiting step
N_crossover	Fuel crossover flux at the cathode catalystlayer/main flow cannel interface
p	Pressure
R	Universal gas constant
S_f	Source term (only available on the anode surface)
S_O	Source term (only available in the cathode catalyst layer)
T	Room temperature
u	Fluid velocity
x	Molar fraction of oxygen
α_a	Anodic charge transfer coefficient
α_c	Cathodic charge transfer coefficient
β	Reaction order
η_a	Anode overpotential
η_c	Cathode overpotential
μ	Viscosity
ρ	Fluid density
ρ_g	Gas mixture density
σ_s	Solid phase conductivity
σ_e	Electrolyte conductivity
$?_{e}$	Electrolyte potential
$?_{s}$	Electric potential
ω	Mass fraction of oxygen

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Effect of geometrical configurations on alkaline air-breathing membraneless microfluidic fuel cells with cylinder anodes

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