Glucose oxidase immobilized biofuel cell flow channel geometry analysis by CFD simulations

Glucose oxidase was covalently immobilized to a porous electrode, which was developed by using ferrocene functionalized polyethyleneimine, multiwall carbon nanotubes, and carbon cloth for biofuel cell applications in our recent studies. The kinetics parameters (i.e. k(M,) V-max) and other parameters required for the modeling study were determined experimentally. Fuel cell flow channel geometry was analyzed by a computational fluid dynamics modeling approach. Substrate flow rate and mass transfer for each proposed channel type were considered in the simulations. The results showed that serpentine type flow channels are advantageous over pin type or parallel flow channels to acquire sufficient performance from the immobilized enzyme electrode at lower substrate flow rates. On the other hand, a disadvantage of using serpentine type channels was observed as higher pressure drops. However, such pressure drops were accepted as reasonable for the considered flow rates for suitable biofuel cell performance.