Energy and exergy analysis of fuel cells: A review

Abstract

In this paper, the fundamental overview of theoretical and practical aspects of thermodynamics analysis for mainly used fuel cells (FCs) are presented. The FC converts the chemical energy of fuel (normally hydrogen) directly into electrical energy resulting heat and liquid water as a waste products. In first part, governing equation of mass, energy, entropy and exergy are presented according to first law of thermodynamics (FLT) and second law of thermodynamics (SLT), more specifically energy and exergy analysis are covered for fuel cell system. Basic criteria of energy and exergy analysis of flowing and non-flowing system, energy and exergy efficiencies, analysis procedure and models of reference environment are discussed in detail. In the second part, electrochemical reactions and thermodynamics modeling of proton exchange membrane or polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), and molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) are presented.

Synthesis of Pd and Pt Based Low Cost Bimetallic Anode Electrocatalyst for Glycerol Electrooxidation in Membraneless Air Breathing Microfluidic Fuel Cell

“…Owing to limited resources of fossil fuels with high demand is the major cause for researchers to develop environment-friendly power generating devices [1]. The fuel cell device produces energy without any toxic emissions to the environment and it has a wide variety of applications such as a power source for mobile applications and stationary devices [2,3]. Microfluidic fuel cells (MFCs) are one of the most recently developed and investigated micro fuel cell device which has created interest among the researchers these days for further studies due to its possible potential uses in portable electronic devices.…”

Fuel Cell Parameters Estimation via Marine Predators and Political Optimizers

“…From the mathematical expressions described by equations (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16), it is obviously noticed that the operation and performance characteristics of the PEMFC stack system are originally depended on a number of parameters. A part of these parameters are not available in the datasheet of the manufacturer and have to be carefully estimated to guarantee an accurate representation of the PEMFC, which gives results that match with experimental data.…”

“…Due to its sufficient way to obtain optimum solutions for complicated problems, Metaheuristics can be adapted to provide robust parameter estimation for fuel cell modeling. From this fact, the no-freelunch theorem has made a cogent remark that is employed by several optimization techniques to solve various engineering optimization problems [6,7].…”

How to Transform Sustainable Energy Technology into a Unicorn Start-Up: Technology Review and Case Study

“…SOFCs are suitable for moderate-and high-power loads from 10 kW to 10 MW and exhibit the advantage of high conversion efficiency. Additionally, one review conducted energy and exergy analyses on various fuel cell types [57]. A theoretical analysis indicated that PEMFCs constitute a promising electrochemical energy conversion device for light-duty applications and have a maximum temperature of 90 • C, thus rendering them suitable for use in applications such as automobiles, buildings, electronics, and rechargeable batteries.…”