S.M. Hosseinalipour - Assistant Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering Iran University of Science Technology
S.M. Mousavi Ehteshami - M.Sc. Student Department of Mechanical Engineering Iran University of Science Technology

A numerical analysis of a membraneless microfluidic fuel cell is presented. It investigates the flow and species transport and includes the modeling of the electro-oxidation and reduction reactions involved in these systems using formic acid and oxygen as reactants. This novel microfluidic fuel cell utilizes the occurrence of laminar flows in a Yshaped microchannel to keep the separation of fuel and oxidant streams without turbulent mixing. The liquid fuel and oxidant streams enter the system at different inlets, and then merge and flow in parallel to one another through the channel between two electrodes without the need of a membrane to separate both streams. Results indicate that the performance is primarily dominated by the mass transport to the electrodes especially at the cathode and could be raised significantly by using a high aspect ratio of cross-sectional geometry. Also, this novel fuel cell concept may lead to the development of efficient room temperature power sources of microscopic dimensions that are comparable or better in performance than conventional PEM based microfuel cells that typically operate between 60 and 80 oC.

Microfluidics, membraneless, pem fuel cell