Employing Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Yielded In Situ Methanol Concentrations under Varying Operating Conditions: A Comparative Optimal Search Study

Abstract

In the literature there are hundreds of research papers for the synthesis of featured membrane to deal with the methanol crossover. Parallel to these experiments, studies focusing on working methanol concentration are continued to obtain the best results in the existing obstacles. Conducted studies reveal that an optimal concentration exists for each current density depending on operating conditions and operating a system near these points provides benefit to the fuel and energy efficiencies. In this study an approach is presented to minimize the crossover effects and operate the fuel cell at existing optimal concentration values depending on current density and methanol fuel rate. Firstly the performance of Golden Section algorithm (GS) while searching the optimal concentration is explored. Then prediction power of Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), training at various operating conditions, is evaluated. Subsequently, ANFIS is evaluated in the control algorithm to determine the optimal concentration and the corresponding voltage. In this way it is aimed to operate the fuel cell yielded in situ concentration control depending on operating conditions. (C) The Author(s) 2015. Published by ECS. All rights reserved.