MICROFLUIDIC FUEL CELL: AN

OVERVIEW
Vishal Kamboj
Department of Chemical Engineering & Technology, IIT BHU, India
Email: vishal.kamboj.che14@itbhu.ac.in.
Abstract ID: GC-025
Abstract
In this overview article a brief discussion is given for understanding the concept of microfluidic fuel cell
68th Annual Session of Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, 27-30 December | Guwahati, India

(MFC) or membrane less fuel cell. MFC operates in a co-laminar flow configuration without any
physical barrier like a membrane for anode and cathode side separation. This paper gives the details
about the various developments and key problems associated with MFC, performance based on fuel
types; design considerations, its flow behaviour and its various types (Flow over type with planar
electrodes, Flow through type with cylindrical anode, Laminar flow fuel cell with air-breathing
electrode).
Keywords: Fuel cell, Microfluidic, Membrane, laminar, design, Review

1. Introduction
In the growing need for the energy, the development of the low power generation devices using
miniaturization technology gives birth to a new class of power generation devices (Shaegh et al., 2011).
Kjeang et al. (2009) reported that there are many types of fuel cells currently under development from
very low power supply to large scale power supply. As batteries cant fulfil the growing demand of
energy so micro structured fuel cell can be used because of high energy density. Microfluidic fuel cells
can be used in various portable devices like mobile phones, laptops, remotes and devices for clinical
purposes (Choban et al., 2004). Major challenges in the development of microfluidic fuel cell is long
time power output and the lack of engineering solution for integrated storage of the fuel and oxidant
(Shaegh et al., 2011).
A microfluidic fuel cell is described as a fuel cell in which fluid delivery and elimination, reaction
sites and electrode structure all restricted in a microfluidic channel. It is also called laminar flow based
fuel cell (LFFC) or membrane less fuel cell as it uses the liquid-liquid interface to separate the anode
and cathode instead a membrane which generate flooding, fuel crossover and dry-out problems.
Microfluidic fuel cells provide high surface area to volume ratio which supports electro chemical
reactions and the major benefit associated to this type of fuel cell, however, is the economic aspect
(Zhang et al., 2015). It can be manufactured by an economical and well established micromachining and
microfabrication techniques moreover the cost of membrane used in other fuel cells is also eliminated.
These devices consist of two electrodes for fuel (anode) and oxidant (cathode). Hydrogen, Methanol,
ethanol, formic acid etc. used as fuel and O2, air, H2O2 etc. as oxidant. Fuel from anode, oxidant from
cathode comes in contact then flow parallel to each other (side by side) in a single microchannel and the
liquid-liquid interface act as a virtual separator. Thus all the reactions (by bulk and diffusive mass
transfer operations) complete in laminar flow arrangement without requirement of membrane. This
configuration allows the compositions of two streams to be chosen separately which can improve the
reaction rates and cell voltage. Low oxygen solubility in aqueous media limit the use of LFFCs so air
breathing cathode integrated microfluidic fuel cells introduced. Air breathing electrodes provide four
order higher diffusivity (0.2cm2 /gm) and higher concentration 10mM than dissolved O2 in aqueous
media (Kjeang et al., 2009).

2. Design and flow dynamics of membraneless laminar flow microfluidic fuel cell
Microfluidic is the science of fluid flow and transport phenomena. Fluid flow in microscale devices is
of laminar type and characterized by low Reynolds number in which viscous effects dominates over
inertial forces. Due to laminar nature of microfluidic, the velocity u for incompressible Newtonian
fluids can be calculated using Navier stokes theorem. Two streams (one stream contains fuel and second
contains oxidant) are introduced in a single microchannel, in laminar flow, parallel to each other. The
liquid-liquid interface acts as a virtual separator without the need for a membrane. The location of
electrodes on the channel walls is decided by the width of co-laminar inter diffusion zone to reduce fuel
and oxidant crossover (Kjeang et al., 2009). Diffusion occurs across the liquid-liquid interface between
the two streams transverse to the direction of flow. Peclet number and Schmidt number allow the
conceptual understanding of the transport issues associated with the fluid flow in rectangular ducts.
Schmidt number = Molecular diffusion
Momentum diffusion
Sc = /D
Where, = dynamic viscocity, = Density, D = Diffusion coefficient
Peclet number = Convective transport rate
Diffusive transport rate
Pe = uL/D
Where, u = velocity, L = length of channel
These dimensionless quantities help in estimating the boundary layer thickness analytically. During
multi-stream laminar flow, diffusion transverse to the direction of flow which results in mixing of
streams. Microfluidic devices generally experience high peclet number that is the rate of transverse
diffusion is much lower than the stream-wise convective velocity.
To control ohmic resistance, a strong supporting electrolyte with high ionic conductivity is desired.
The co-laminar configuration permits the composition to be chosen independently, thus providing a
chance to increase reaction rates and cell voltage. The open circuit voltage of the cell can be increased
by pH modification of individual streams. Electrochemical reactions (Eq. 1, 2) to generate electricity in
microfluidic fuel cells (fuel- formic acid) as follows:
Anode reaction: HCOOH CO2 + 2H+ + 2e E0 = 0.22 V

(1)

Cathode reaction: O2 + 4H+ + 4e 2H2O E0 = 1.229 V.

(2)

3. Types of Microfluidic fuel cell

3.1. Flow over type with planar electrodes
As shown in Figure 1, flow-over designs generally provide streaming of fuel and oxidant over planar
electrodes. Only a fraction of fuel and oxidant streams in adjacent to the catalyst layer participate in
electro-catalytic reactions. Due to the lack of effective convective mass transport, a depletion boundary
layer with low concentration of reactant grows over both electrodes. To enhance fuel utilization in flowover designs, an improved design of electrodes was implemented in the channel to provide more active
area for electrochemical reactions, as shown in Figure 1(f).

Figure 1: Different cross sectional channel configuration of microfluidic fuel cells (Shaegh et al., 2011)
(a) side by side streaming, (b) top bottom electrode configuration (c) vertical side walls electrode
configuration (d) bottom wall electrode configuration (e) bottom wall electrode configuration in a
grooved channel (f) 3-D graphite rods electrode configuration.
3.2. Flow through type with cylindrical anodes
Zhang et al., 2015 investigated that one of the main challenges is the continuous formation of fuel
concentration boundary layer which results ineffective diffusive mass transport and consumption of
anode reaction causing the decrease of fuel concentration in the vicinity of the planar anode and nonuniform current density. Another challenge is fuel cross over means large part of the fuel at anode side
goes to cathode side without taking part in the reaction which decreases its overall fuel efficiency, so to
overcome these challenges microfluidic fuel cell with a cylinder anode are used at regular intervals
which decrease the effect of fuel concentration boundary layer but at the expense of decreased total
output for a fixed channel length. These cylindrical electrodes have spatially distributed catalyst on its
circumferential surface area to increase the available area for the reaction. Fuel crossover is minimized
by fast electrolyte flow in the vicinity of cathode side (Yea et al., 2015).
Figure 2 shows air-breathing MFC with cylindrical anode which comprises 12 cylinder anodes and an
air-breathing cathode. Air breathing cathodes uses oxidant O2 directly from atmosphere which reduces
the problem of limited dissolved oxygen solubility. The anodes are arranged in a hexagonal pattern and
are electrically connected in parallel. Between the anodes and cathode, six electrical-isolated spacers are
used to stabilize the inter-diffusion region.

Figure 2: Systematic representation of air-breathing MFC with cylindrical anodes (Yea et al., 2015)

3.3. Laminar flow fuel cell with air-breathing cathode

Membrane less laminar flow based fuel cell is relatively a new type of fuel cell developed in recent
years. The laminar flow in microchannel prevents the mixing of fuel and oxidant without any physical
barrier. In its early design dissolved oxygen was used as a oxidant but due to its low saturation and
diffusivity of dissolved oxygen the cell performance gets limited by mass transfer at cathode side,
resulting in low power density. Recently design by using air breathing cathode solved this problem
offering an oxygen rich environment. LFFC uses a liquid-liquid interface to separate fuel and oxidant;
some membrane-related problems such as ooding and dry-out are eliminated. However, proper
selection of ow channel design and ow rate is required to avoid issues related to the dynamic liquidliquid interface such diusion mixing of the reactive streams (Xuan et al., 2013).
Microfluidic fuel cells are fabricated by two pieces of poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) sheet which
were machined by CO2 laser. The bottom layer is a 2 mm thick PMMA sheet with engraved micro
channel for the fuel stream (Shaegh et al., 2010). The channel width and length are 2 mm and 5 cm,
respectively. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), nafion, catalyst (Pt, Pd, Ru, Pt-Ru etc.), carbon paper
(susai et al., 2001) are the four components used to fabricate anode and cathode which are placed in
PMMA sheets (figure 3) then after mechanical treatment to improve surface roughness, sheets are
bonded together.

Gas diffusion electrode

Top PMMA layer

Bottom PMMA layer

Groove for wired connection

(a)

(b)

Figure 3: Schematic of microfluidic fuel cell (a) The different layers (b) Details of fuel cell architecture
4. Conclusion
Fuel cell is a device which converts fuel Gibbs free energy in to electrical energy. Major problems
associated with fuel cells are expensive membrane requirement, membrane humidification, and fuel
cross over etc. All these problems are solved using microfluidic fuel cell devices which operate in colaminar configuration without a physical barrier as membrane.
Fluid flow in microfluidic fuel cells is laminar so characterized by a Renolds number and flow field is
calculated usinf Navier stokes theorem. Liquid-liquid interface between fuel and oxidant streams make
a diffusion layer which is characterized by two dimensions less numbers: Schmidt number, Peclet
number. Ohmic resistance is controlled by using high conductivity strong electrolyte and Open circuit
voltage is increased by pH modifications of two streams.

Microfluidic fuel cells are of three types: Flow over type with planar electrodes, Flow through type
with cylindrical electrodes, Laminar flow based fuel cells with air-breathing cathodes. Flow over design
fuel cell devices suffer from wastage of fuel due to less effective mass transfer so to increase fuel
utilization improved cylindrical electrode designs are introduced. Further, use of air-breathing cathode
improves fuel cell performances by using ambient oxygen.
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