This paper presents a study of the flow field and residence times in the anode flow bed of a pilot direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) using 3-D numerical flow modelling. The flow characteristics in the pilot DEFC anode flow bed are discussed with regard to the available data. Calculations of the flow field characteristics and residence times in a pin-type fuel cell with a modified version of an existing finite-volume computational fluid dynamics code are presented. The numerical results are in good agreement with other computational and experimental studies for the residence times and flow distribution inside the anode flow bed. The present model provides results that can be of good assistance for the improvement of specific flow bed designs. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.