{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,4]],"date-time":"2026-04-04T17:45:59Z","timestamp":1775324759786,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"20","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,17]],"date-time":"2024-10-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1729123200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"FEDER"},{"name":"PIDDAC"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Energies"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Mini passive direct methanol fuel cells (mpDMFCs) appear to be a promising alternative for powering portable devices, since they use a liquid fuel, have a fast refuelling time, have a high efficiency and have a low environmental impact. However, some issues need to be solved before their commercialization, such as methanol crossover, short lifetime and high costs. The present work studies the effect of reducing the anode and cathode catalyst loading on the performance of a mpDMFC towards a reduction in the system costs and the characterization of the system losses. The undesirable losses that affect the fuel cell performance were identified and quantified using the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique. Accordingly, a novel equivalent electric circuit (EEC) was proposed, accurately reproducing the mini pDMFC. In this work, a maximum power density of 7.07 mW cm\u22122 was obtained, with a methanol concentration of 5 M, using 2 mg cm\u22122 Pt-RuB and 4 mg cm\u22122 PtB. The mpDMFC allowed the cell to work with high methanol concentrations and reduced anode catalyst loadings.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/en17205174","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,17]],"date-time":"2024-10-17T08:56:32Z","timestamp":1729155392000},"page":"5174","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["The Effect of a Reduction in the Catalyst Loading on a Mini Passive Direct Methanol Fuel Cell"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"C. S.","family":"Moreira","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"CEFT\u2014Transport Phenomena Research Centre, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"ALiCE\u2014Associate Laboratory in Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2937-5186","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"A. M. F. R.","family":"Pinto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CEFT\u2014Transport Phenomena Research Centre, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"ALiCE\u2014Associate Laboratory in Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5926-0702","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"V. B.","family":"Oliveira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CEFT\u2014Transport Phenomena Research Centre, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"},{"name":"ALiCE\u2014Associate Laboratory in Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,10,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"227800","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jpowsour.2020.227800","article-title":"Enhanced Water Management via the Optimization of Cathode Microporous Layer Using 3D Graphene Frameworks for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell","volume":"451","author":"Yuan","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. 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