Modeling of hydrogen alkaline membrane fuel cell with interfacial effect and water management optimization

Deng, Hao; Wang, Dawei; Xie, Xu; Zhou, Yibo; Yin, Yan; Du, Qing; Jiao, Kui

doi:10.1016/j.renene.2016.01.054

Cited by 77 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…It was also shown via modeling that slight anode pressurization and thinner membrane generally improve the cell performance because the water transport from anode to cathode is enhanced. 22 However, a detailed insight of water management is still lacking in the literature. For example, anode flooding has been investigated by varying the anode inlet relative humidity (RH), pressure, and AEM water permeability.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Elucidating Performance Limitations in Alkaline-Exchange- Membrane Fuel Cells

Shiau

Zenyuk

Weber

2017

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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Water management is a serious concern for alkaline-exchange-membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) because water is a reactant in the alkaline oxygen-reduction reaction and hydroxide conduction in alkaline-exchange membranes is highly hydration dependent. In this paper, we develop and use a multiphysics, multiphase model to explore water management in AEMFCs. We demonstrate that the low performance is mostly caused by extremely non-uniform distribution of water in the ionomer phase. A sensitivity analysis of design parameters including humidification strategies, membrane properties, and water transport resistance was undertaken to explore possible optimization strategies. Furthermore, the strategy and issues of reducing bicarbonate/carbonate buildup in the membrane-electrode assembly with CO 2 from air is demonstrated based on the model prediction. Overall, mathematical modeling is used to explore trends and strategies to overcome performance bottlenecks and help enable AEMFC commercialization. Among existing fuel-cell types, alkaline-exchange-membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) or hydroxide-exchange-membrane fuel cells (HEMFCs) have intriguing features as compared to proton-exchangemembrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Their advantage is mainly the possibility of using non-noble catalysts due to faster oxygenreduction-reaction (ORR) kinetics in alkaline media than in acidic media 1-4 as well as perhaps the use of less expensive hydrocarbon membranes. Disadvantages of AEMFCs include lower hydrogenoxidation-reaction (HOR) kinetics, more complicated water management, and lower intrinsic conductivity for hydroxide compared to proton transport. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] In addition, CO 2 in the air reacts with hydroxide ions to form bicarbonate and carbonate ions, possibly hindering the terrestrial development of AEMFCs by removing hydroxide available for HOR and further limiting hydroxide conductivity. 14,15 Compared to conventional alkaline fuel cells (i.e., using a liquid electrolyte of potassium hydroxide), AEMFCs use a polymeric membrane and should have better tolerance for CO 2 because the precipitate K 2 CO 3 is absent in the AEMFC due to the lack of mobile cations in the membrane. 16 However, AEMFCs still suffer a decline in performance due to bicarbonate/carbonate formation in the membrane and catalyst layers (CLs) leading to additional ohmic and kinetic losses. [13][14][15] In an AEMFC, the following electrochemical reactions occur in the CLs as follows:Net :Hydrogen combines with hydroxide ions to produce water in the anode. Oxygen reacts with water to generate hydroxide ions in the cathode. Along with the transport of ions from cathode to anode, electro-osmosis moves water from cathode to anode. As shown in the reactions, AEMFCs are expected to have more complicated water management. Water production by the HOR and electro-osmosis may cause flooding in the anode. Since water is a stoichiometric reactant at the cathode, dehydration may occur and limit ORR kinetics as well as ionic conduction in the membrane and cathode CL, ...

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Elucidating Performance Limitations in Alkaline-Exchange- Membrane Fuel Cells

Shiau

Zenyuk

Weber

2017

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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“…in the concentration transport limited regime, and at higher methanol concentration at the anode side. The variation of the saturation profile can be explained by considering the condensation of water due to capillarity effect (assumed to occur on pores with size smaller than 4 nm [45,93,94]. In fact, our FeeNeC has an average pore size of 3 nm, see Table 1) and has significative pressure losses along the CL because of the porosity and permeability of the CL itself.…”

Section: Single Cell Dmfc 3d Multiphysics Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the model was used also to identify the controlling factors that dominate the DMFC performance [93]. Fig.…”

Section: Single Cell Dmfc 3d Multiphysics Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance analysis of Fe–N–C catalyst for DMFC cathodes: Effect of water saturation in the cathodic catalyst layer

Monteverde

Sebastián

Vasile

et al. 2016

International Journal of Hydrogen Energy

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“…26 In reverse, the cathode MPL will promote water transport through membrane from cathode to anode side, aggravating anode flooding and cathode water shortage. The anode MPL will promote the generated water towards the cathode side through membrane, and the cathode MPL will play the same role but forcing the water towards the anode side.…”

Section: Effect Of Mplmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The experimental work and modeling study done by Deng et al 26 showed that inserting anode microporous layer (MPL) and reducing membrane thickness could promote the water transport towards cathode CL, thereby significantly enhancing the cell performance. 14,22-27 A three-dimensional model for AEMFC developed by Machado et al 23 explored the influences of the flow direction, inlet gas temperature, and relative humidity (RH) on the overall cell performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental investigation on the performance and durability of hydrogen AEMFC with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

Xie

Zhou

et al. 2019

Int J Energy Res

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Summary In situ experimental tests and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations are done to explore the impact of geometry structure and operating conditions on the performance and durability of alkaline electrolyte membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) accompanied by electrochemical diagnosis. The results show that low anode and cathode polarization resistances can be achieved by selecting a proper ionomer mass fraction (IMF) of the catalyst layer (CL). Increasing the IMF can improve the tolerance to inlet gas humidity. The presence of the anode microporous layer (MPL) greatly improves the cell performance, but cathode MPL plays a reverse effect. After the durability test, the homogeneity of CL is seriously deformed, leading to a great increment of anode and cathode polarization resistances, verified by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and SEM results. An enhancement of fuel cell durability is achieved by adding nanoscale polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) into CL. This work can provide some guidance for the structural and operating parameter optimization of the AEMFC researches in the future.

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Modeling of hydrogen alkaline membrane fuel cell with interfacial effect and water management optimization

Cited by 77 publications

References 28 publications

Elucidating Performance Limitations in Alkaline-Exchange- Membrane Fuel Cells

Elucidating Performance Limitations in Alkaline-Exchange- Membrane Fuel Cells

Performance analysis of Fe–N–C catalyst for DMFC cathodes: Effect of water saturation in the cathodic catalyst layer

Experimental investigation on the performance and durability of hydrogen AEMFC with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

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