Performance Study of a Bi-Cell Piezoelectric Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell With a Nozzle and Diffuser

Abstract

Previous studies of a bi-cell piezoelectric proton exchange membrane fuel cell with a nozzle and diffuser (PZT-PEMFC-ND bi-cell) have shown that the performance of the PZT-PEMFC-ND bi-cell could be 1.6 times greater than that of the single cell when the proper aspect ratio (AR) of 11.25 and the diffuser angle of 5° are applied to the diffuser. In this study, the novel pseudo-bipolar bi-cell module was designated parallel with an 8 cm2 reaction area, an AR of 5.63, and a diffuser angle 10°. The bi-cell module was operated under various operating conditions, including different operating temperatures, bi-cell circuit and intake module on anode, the performance of the bi-cell and the two component cells, and to optimize the integrated system output. The pump performance of the PZT-PEMFC-ND may be influenced by the asymmetric amplitude of the PZT device. The asymmetric amplitude results in different air flow rates through the cathode chamber of the component cells and in different current outputs for the component cells. For the different intake modules, the power of bi-cells at flow parallel and series will produce maximum power as 0.283 W cm−2 and 0.263 W cm−2, respectively. The power consumption of the PZT device should be taken into consideration when determining the net power of the PZT-PEMFC-ND bi-cell. In this study, the maximum net power of the bi-cell was found to be 0.7W.