Impact of the Anode Serpentine Channel Depth on the Performance of a Methanol Electrolysis Cell

This work addresses for the first time the effect of anode serpentine channel depth on Methanol Electrolysis Cells (MECs) and Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFCs) for improving performance of both devices. Anode plates with serpentine flow fields of 0.5 mm, 1.0 mm and 1.5 mm depths are designed and tested in single-cells to compare their behaviour. Performance was evaluated through methanol crossover, polarization and power density curves. Results suggest shallower channels enhance mass transfer efficiency reducing MEC energy consumption for hydrogen production at 40 mA∙cm−2 by 4.2%, but increasing methanol crossover by 30.3%. The findings of this study indicate 1.0 mm is the best depth among those studied for a MEC with 16 cm2 of active area, while 0.5 mm is the best for a DMFC with the same area with an increase in peak power density of 14.2%. The difference in results for both devices is attributed to higher CO2 production in the MEC due to its higher current density operation. This increased CO2 production alters anode two-phase flow, partially hindering the methanol oxidation reaction with shallower channels. These findings underscore the critical role of channel depth in the efficiency of both MEC and DMFC single-cells.