Eventos Anais de eventos
ENCIT 2016
16th Brazilian Congress of Thermal Sciences and Engineering
MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF A DIRECT ETHANOL FUEL CELL (DEFC)
Submission Author:
Ranon Gomes , RS
Co-Authors:
Alvaro de Bortoli
Presenter: Ranon Gomes
doi://10.26678/ABCM.ENCIT2016.CIT2016-0164
Abstract
There is growing interest in renewable energy sources worldwide. Concerns about global warming and energy generation that is not fully dependent on petroleum has taken attention of researchers. Many of these sources can be continuously produced, such the biofuels. Alternative sources such as the hydric, solar and eolian have been used for energy production; however, these sources do not have complete confidence and in some cases have high cost of implementation. In the case of biofuels, great expectations exist about its use as alternative fuels. A device able to utilize more efficiently the energy of biofuels is the fuel cell. The fuel cell is an electrochemical device capable of converting chemical energy of fuel directly into electrical energy. Ethanol is a biofuel produced from sources that contain sugar and is an attractive fuel for use in fuel cells for automotive and electronic applications. Thus, this work develops a three-dimensional mathematical model able to predict the flow in all layers of the DEFC. In addition, the model estimates the operating voltage of the cell considering all losses overpotentials, which are obtained from the parameters of the cell and of the flow in the channel, in the diffusion layer and in the surface of the electrocatalyst. A code in Fortran90 was developed for the solution of the three-dimensional mathematical model. The finite difference method was used for the discretization, and the numerical simulations were realized using the simplified Runge-Kutta method. In this way, this work contributes with the development of a model for DEFCs taking into account all losses overpotentials, providing a better understanding of the physical and chemical behavior within the cell.
Keywords
Fuel Cell, ethanol, Numerical simulation, mathematical model, DEFC, Fuel Cell, ethanol, Numerical simulation, mathematical model, DEFC, Fuel Cell, ethanol, Numerical simulation, mathematical model, DEFC
