Limitations and Potentials of applications of microscale engineering in fuel cells

The ratio of surface to volume will increase when the size of the system decreases. Because of the fact that electrochemical reactions, mass transfer and heat transfer, which are most dominant processes in fuel cells, are all surface phenomena, the power density, efficiency and cost of the fuel cells can be improved using the concept of micro technology. PEM fuel cells are used in low power and tiny volume applications, thus micro technology can be more useful in these cells than other cells. Our investigation indicates that application of the concept of microfluidics in design of fuel cells could provide useful analytical basis for enhancing the performance of fuel cell technology. The present paper is devoted to the investigation of the limitations and potentials of applications of micro scale engineering in fuel cells. Finally the impact of specific characteristics of microfluidics on the performance of fuel cell is described briefly.