Improving PEM fuel cell performance and effective water removal by using a novel gas flow field

Rahimi-Esbo, M.; Ranjbar, A.A.; Ramiar, Abas; Alizadeh, Ebrahim; Aghaee, Morteza

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.11.001

Cited by 84 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In addition, in the model propose by this study, the heat pipe effect due to phase change of water is not considered. However, it was reported that the temperature difference between T react under the rib and that under the channel is small, which is approximately within 1 K at 70-80 °C, according to the other studies conducting the numerical simulation by 3D model considering phase change of water [40,41]. Therefore, this study thinks that the heat pipe effect assists heat removal under the channel is small.…”

Section: D Multi-plate Heat Transfer Modelmentioning

confidence: 65%

Impact of Thickness of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane and Gas Diffusion Layer on Temperature Distributions in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Operated at Temperature around 90 °C

Nishimura¹,

Sato²,

Kamiya³

et al. 2019

JEPE

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Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC) is desired to be operated at temperature around 90 °C for stationary applications during the period from 2020 to 2025 in Japan. It can be expected thinner polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) and gas diffusion layer (GDL) would promote the power generation performance of PEFC at this temperature. The aim of this study is to understand the impact of thickness of PEM and GDL on the temperature profile of interface between PEM and catalyst layer at the cathode (i.e., the reaction surface) in a single PEFC with an initial operation temperature (T ini). An 1D multi-plate heat transfer model based on temperature data of separator measured using thermograph in power generation process was developed to evaluate temperature of the reaction surface (T react). This study investigated the effect of T ini , flow rate and relative humidity of supply gas on T react distribution. The study finds that when using thin GDL, the even distribution of T react-T ini is obtained irrespective of thickness of PEM, T ini and relative humidity conditions. T react-T ini using Nafion 115 is higher than the other thin PEMs irrespective of T ini and relative humidity conditions. It can be concluded that the even temperature distribution could be achieved by using thin PEM and GDL.

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Section: D Multi-plate Heat Transfer Modelmentioning

confidence: 65%

Impact of Thickness of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane and Gas Diffusion Layer on Temperature Distributions in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Operated at Temperature around 90 °C

Nishimura¹,

Sato²,

Kamiya³

et al. 2019

JEPE

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“…The number of anode and cathode flow channels elements is 159,653 and 138,246, respectively. The body mesh generation is non-uniform as Rahimi-Esbo [32] presented, because of the dimensional difference. Collector plates and channels have the same elements Tet/Hybrid and type TGrid, and other parts use the same elements Hex and type Map.…”

Section: Geometry and Mesh Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymptotic Analysis for the Effects of Anode Inlet Humidity on the Fastest Power Attenuation Single Cell in a Vehicle Fuel Cell Stack

et al. 2018

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A three-dimensional and isothermal anode relative humidity (ARH) model is presented and used to study the anode inlet humidity effects on the fastest power attenuation single cell in a vehicle fuel cell stack. The ARH model is based on the phenomenon that the anode is more sensitive than the cathode to water flooding. The pressure drop is considered in the ARH model, and saturation pressure is established by a pressure drop. Based on the pressure drop and relative humidity, simulations and tests are completed. First, the geometric model and computational grids are established, based on real structure of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Second, single cell distribution in the stack, test schematic and experimental conditions are demonstrated. Finally, polarization curves with 10 cells are displayed and discussed under these conditions that working temperature 70 °C, and diverse relative humidity (40%, 55%, 70%, 85%, and 100%). The test results of 34 cm2 fuel cell stack are compared against simulation results. The results show that C10 (the single cell with the farthest distance from the gas inlet) power attenuation is the fastest and that its performance is the poorest under the experimental conditions. The polarization curves predicted by the ARH model indicate fairly good coherence with the experimental results, compared against the Fluent original model. The ARH model calculation deviation is 28% less than the Fluent model at 360 mA·cm−2 for a relative humidity of 85%. The current density distribution is almost uniform, and membrane water content is negatively affected by high humidity.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The basic design of the aforementioned primary flow fields has not been evolved to much extent as of now, and these have been considered for analysis and production to a much larger extent. 17,18 The design of the flow path is usually based on the factors of effective water management and species diffusion. However, Roshandel et al 19 considered a different route and designed a bioinspired pattern for the flow fields within a PEM-FC.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of flow fields and humidification of reactant and oxidant on the performance of scaled‐up PEM‐FC using CFD code

Selvaraj

Rajagopal

2019

Int J Energy Res

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Summary The present study focuses on three‐dimensional two‐phase CFD investigation on scaled‐up proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEM‐FC) for an active area of 100 cm2 with different designs of serpentine and parallel flow configuration. The humidification of hydrogen and oxygen is varied from 10% to 100% to study the PEM‐FC performance. The numerical results of polarization curves predicted in this study have been numerically validated with that of the literature for both parallel and counter serpentine flow channels with active area of 24.8‐cm2 PEM‐FC. Further upon validation, the numerical study is extended for scaled‐up PEM‐FC with active area of 100 cm2 with different flow path designs to study its performance characteristics namely polarization curves, species concentration distribution, water content in the membrane electrolyte, and proton conductivity to evaluate the fuel cell performance. The three‐dimensional CAD models are created in SOLIDWORKS 10.0 and are discretised hexahedrally using finite volume method. The various governing equations namely conservation of mass, momentum, energy, species concentration, and electrochemical equations are solved numerically with the necessary boundary conditions using the CFD code. The novel design of straight zigzag flow path shows the better performance output over the other designs investigated which is having a higher power density of 0.3711 W/cm2 for 100% relative humidity of reactant and oxidant.

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Improving PEM fuel cell performance and effective water removal by using a novel gas flow field

Cited by 84 publications

References 15 publications

Impact of Thickness of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane and Gas Diffusion Layer on Temperature Distributions in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Operated at Temperature around 90 °C

Impact of Thickness of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane and Gas Diffusion Layer on Temperature Distributions in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Operated at Temperature around 90 °C

Asymptotic Analysis for the Effects of Anode Inlet Humidity on the Fastest Power Attenuation Single Cell in a Vehicle Fuel Cell Stack

Effect of flow fields and humidification of reactant and oxidant on the performance of scaled‐up PEM‐FC using CFD code

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