Double voltage boost for DBFC fuel cells

The research conducted at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has been published in Cell Reports Physical Science.

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The research team, led by Vijay Ramani, the Roma B. and Raymond H. Wittcoff Distinguished University Professor, has pioneered a reactant: identifying an optimal range of flow rates, flow field architectures and residence times that enable high power operation. This approach is said to address key challenges in DBFCs, namely proper fuel and oxidant distribution and the mitigation of parasitic reactions.

The team has demonstrated also a single-cell operating voltage of 1.4 or greater, double that obtained in conventional hydrogen fuel cells, with peak powers approaching 1W/cm².

Doubling the voltage would allow for a smaller, lighter, more efficient fuel cell design, leading to gravimetric and volumetric advantages when assembling multiple cells into a stack for commercial use. Their approach is said to be broadly applicable to other classes of liquid/liquid fuel cells.