Design and Performance Analysis of a Latent Heat Storage for the Operation of a High-Temperature Methanol Fuel Cell

Due to ever stricter economical and legislative regulations, the efficiency of technical processes has to be constantly increased. Besides many other efficiency enhancing methods, the use of waste heat has a great potential to save energy. In particular, the use of waste heat at temperatures above 373 K offers many possibilities, as it is mostly unused today. In order to exploit these potentials, a new latent heat storage system using a polymer as a phase change material has been developed during the R&D project "eleMeMe - Decentralized decoupling of power generation and energy supply through onsite electrochemical methanol production and methanol fuel cells". The storage is used to operate a high-temperature methanol fuel cell. Usually the fuel cell must be electrically preheated before the start to reach its optimum operating temperature. During operation, heat is generated and the system has to be air cooled to maintain its temperature. Instead of cooling the system with air, the heat is now stored in a latent heat storage system to start the fuel cell later.