Semarang State Polytechnic (Polines) has again received new energy. Yusuf Dewantoro Herlambang, lecturer
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Polines, won a doctorate from the National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan.
He received the doctorate degree after successfully defending his dissertation entitled "A Numerical Study on the Performance of Microfluidic Fuel Cells with Different Operating Conditions" in an exam held at the Mechanical Engineering Department Building, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan, recently.
Director of Polines, Ir. Supriyadi, MT appreciated the graduation of this lecturer's further studies. "We are adding more and more lecturers with doctoral qualifications at Polines," he said. It is hoped that he will graduate soon, be able to develop his knowledge in the Polynes Mechanical engineering department.
This dissertation was completed under the guidance of Prof. Shun-Ching Lee, Ph.D
and Prof. Jin-Cheng Shyu, Ph.D. Meanwhile, as an external examiner, Prof. Wang-Long Li, Ph.D, Prof. Da-Sheng Lee, Ph.D and Prof. Jr-Ming Miao, Ph.D. For internal examiners, Prof. Min-Wen Wang, Ph.D., Prof. Shun-Ching Lee, Ph.D and Prof. Jin-Cheng Shyu, Ph.D
Yusuf said that the implementation of a micro-scale energy generation system based on renewable energy, especially on portable devices, became an opportunity and a challenge in the future as the world's fossil fuel reserves (oil, gas and coal) began to decrease. " Microfluidic fuel cell become one of the promising candidates as an alternative energy source in the future,” he said. Because of its wide application potential in various fields of computers, telecommunications, energy generation, and transportation. Specifically for applications on portable electronic devices, namely cell phones, laptops, GPS, clinical diagnostic devices, and small-scale generating stations.
Some advantages microfluidic fuel cell compared to battery energy sources, he explained, are having the ability to generate electrical energy continuously as long as reactants are available in the fuel cell, have a high energy density, have a longer operating time without periodic charging or replacement, do not produce pollution and emissions, has a longer operational life, does not occur when integrated into the system, and can be combined with hybrid generating systems, such as photovoltaic (PV), wind turbines, biogas.
This dissertation research numerically investigates the performance of air-breathing direct formic acid microfluidic fuel cells (DFAMFCs) under different operating conditions. This microfluidic fuel has a microchannel length of 25 mm, a microchannel width of 1.5 mm and a channel depth of 0.05 mm, with a distance between the electrodes of 0.3 mm. The anode and cathode electrodes are 20 mm long with a gas diffusion electrode thickness of 0.25 mm.
Microfluidic fuel cell is an electrochemical-based energy generator that combines fuel and oxygen in a microchannel through an electrode to generate electrical energy through electrochemical reactions in the cell. A microfluidic fuel cell is a micro-scale fuel cell that eliminates the proton exchange membrane commonly used in traditional fuel cells (PEM Fuel Cells) by applying laminar flow at a low volumetric flow rate and a Reynolds number of less than 1.
He said that this research presents the concept of the mass transfer process between the microchannel and the gas diffusion electrode as well as the electrochemical kinetic reaction in the air-breathing microfluidic fuel cell which can be used as a basic guide in the design and optimization to improve the performance of fuel cells in future research.
Scientific publications that have been produced: 4 articles/papers in international journals indexed by SCI Thomson Reuters and/or Scopus and 1 IEEE International conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems (NEMS) on 9-12 April 2017 at the University of California Los Angeles , California, USA.