Review of Challenges in Direct Methanol Fuel Cell and Contemporary Status

Abstract

From the inception, Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) is made suitable for various appliances which include stationary and portable electrical applications as it is considered as a notably highly promising one amongst energy sources in renewable energies. Its ion or proton conducting electrolyte is based totally on polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology. Their main advantage is the ease of transport of methanol fuel and energy dense stable liquid at all environmental conditions. It poses other advantages such as lower fuel production costs, lower risk of flammability and increased energy security and availability. It produces oxides of hydrogen and carbon, but not of sulphur or nitrogen or other toxic gases. This review paper brought out improvement of DMFC from primitive to present stage with the eventual goal of improving the overall performance of the DMFC addressing the issues like performance influence on operating temperature and pressure parameters, stacking, methanol and water cross over, current collectors, optimization of gaskets, supporting plates, cathode channel configuration, experiments on portable power supply source and on multi anodes over last 15 years between , i.e., year 2005 onwards to 2019. It also provides research gaps for future endeavors