Abstract
The challenges of finding a better substitute of energy as well as the short comings identify
with direct ethanol fuel cell, this includes; high anode over potential and crossover necessitate
the need to investigate the influence operating parameters on the performance of fuel through
computer simulation. This study focus on the development of a predictive mathematical
modeling for direct ethanol fuel cell for the purpose of investigating the influence pressure,
temperature cathode and reactants concentration on the performance, efficiency and heat
generated by the cell. Results obtained indicate that increase in operating temperature
resulted led to decrement in output voltage and cell efficiency, while same condition of
increasing the temperature positively favour the heat generated from the cell. Simulated
results also show that cell performance is improved with increase in concentration of the fuel
(ethanol) and oxidant (oxygen). It can be inferred from this study that the cell performance of
DEFC can be theoretically predicted with the developed model.