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Low-Power Fuel Delivery With Concentration Regulation for Micro Direct Methanol Fuel Cell.
- Source :
-
IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications . May2011, Vol. 47 Issue 3, p1470-1479. 10p. - Publication Year :
- 2011
-
Abstract
- Over the past decade, the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) has been considered as a potential candidate of power sources for portable electronics due to its high energy density and environmental friendly operation. However, the use of diluted fuel loading and active fuel mixer/pump limits the DMFC's efficiency and operating time dramatically. The disadvantages become more severe in microscale DMFCs which require high conversion efficiency within a small physical space to meet the strict working specifications. In this paper, a low-power micro fuel supplier with programmable concentration regulation was designed and fabricated by using microelectromechanical system technology. The prototype adopted surface-tension pumping as the primary driving force to deliver fuel at zero power consumption. In addition, a well-arranged microfluidic capillary network was used to regulate the fuel concentration. A pulse-power actuated bubbler switch was embedded in the capillary network to achieve the liquid flow control dynamically and to adjust the fuel concentration for micro-DMFC ( \muDMFC) reaction. Both electrolysis and thermal bubble actuations were investigated in this paper for their effective operations in the prototype. The advantage of precise and low-power fuel regulation within a compact system volume makes the proposed fuel delivery subsystem a suitable candidate for future on-chip \muDMFC development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00939994
- Volume :
- 47
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 60831829
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2011.2126012