Development and characterization of a 280  cm₂ vanadium/oxygen fuel cell

By Noack, Jens; Cremers, Carsten; Bayer, Domnik; Tübke, Jens & Pinkwart, Karsten
Published in Journal of Power Sources NULL 2014

Abstract

A vanadium/oxygen fuel cell with an active area of 280 cm₂ has been developed. The cell consisted of two membranes with two half-cells and an intermediate chamber. The maximum achieved power density was 23 mW cm⁻² at 0.56 V with lambda air = 3 and a 1.6 M V²⁺ solution at room temperature. The average discharge power density was 19.6 mW cm⁻² at a constant current density of 40 mA cm⁻² with an average voltage efficiency of 33%. The fuel based energy density was 18.2% of the theoretical value with 11.8 Wh L⁻¹. In comparison with a similarly constructed 50 cm² cell, both achieved similar performance levels. An analysis using the half-cell potential profiles and by means of impedance spectroscopy revealed that, as for the 50 cm² cell, the low rate of oxygen reduction reaction significantly affected the performance of the cell. Thus gives potential for the optimization of the cathode reaction and a reduction in the ohmic resistances potential for higher power densities.

Read Article » Back