Application of metal foams to high temperature PEM fuel cells

Tseng, Chung Jen; Heush, Ying Jui; Chiang, Chien Jui; Lee, Yi‐Hsuan; Lee, Kan Rong

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.06.149

Cited by 41 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(19 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Graphite is a material with good surface contact resistance and superior corrosion resistance. On the downside, the graphite bipolar plate demonstrates lower performance when compared to the metal foam bipolar plate [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. It is also expensive and difficult to fabricate.…”

Section: Fuel Cell 31 Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cellmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Overview of porous media/metal foam application in fuel cells and solar power systems

Tan¹,

Saw²,

Thiam³

et al. 2018

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

140

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fuel cells and solar energy are promising candidates for electricity generation. It is forecast that fuel cells and solar power systems will play an important role in reducing the greenhouse gas footprint and replacing fossil fuels. Therefore, the limitations of fuel cells and solar power systems, such as low efficiency, high cost, and low reliability, must be addressed appropriately to enable their full potentials. Metal foam is a new class of material that has gained immense attention due to its excellent properties suitable for a wide range of applications. Its unique characteristics distinguish it from typical solid metals. The properties of metal foam can be modified during the fabrication stage by manipulating its physical structure. The goal of this paper is to review the application of metal foam in fuel cells and solar power systems. Besides, the performance of metal foam in fuel cells and solar systems is also discussed. Metal foam has been applied to the electrodes, gas diffusion layer and flow field of fuel cells to enhance performance, especially in regard to current density and flow distribution. Furthermore, metal foam is a heat exchanger for the solar energy harvesting system to improve its efficiency. Superior performances in experimental testing allows the possibility of commercialization of metal foam products in the renewable energy field.

show abstract

Section: Fuel Cell 31 Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cellmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The effect of high temperature on the PEMFC was investigated by Tseng et al [28]. At high temperature, the water is not in a liquid state but in its steam phase.…”

Section: Fuel Cell 31 Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cellmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview of porous media/metal foam application in fuel cells and solar power systems

Tan¹,

Saw²,

Thiam³

et al. 2018

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

140

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Tsai et al have reported that the mainstream of supplied gases flows in a diagonal direction with the passage of the gas through the metal foam; thus, the non‐uniform distribution of gas is observed because of the characteristics of the foam, e.g., high porosity, large pore size, and open structure of the metal foam. In other words, gases are not sufficiently supplied to some parts of the electrode (non‐mainstream region), e.g., dead zone.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Porous Metal Flow Field in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell under Pressurized Condition

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A flow field represents an interesting research area related to polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), as it is a component crucial for the distribution of gas‐phase reactants. In this study, a metal foam was characterized and applied as a flow field in a PEMFC unit cell. In addition, the electrochemical performance of the metal foam was compared with that of the commonly used serpentine flow field. At a relative humidity (RH) of 100%, no significant difference in performance was observed between the metal foam and serpentine flow field. However, the performance of a single cell with the metal foam was superior to that of the common flow field under an RH of 20% under pressurized conditions. Furthermore, the factors affecting fuel cell performance by application of the flow field were discussed.

show abstract

“…On the other hand, studies have been conducted to develop novel flow fields, either inspired by nature [18,19]; developed with new structures such as metal sheets [20,21] and porous metal foams [6,22,23]; or proposed by various blockage arrangements of parallel flow channel [24][25][26]. Tseng et al [22,27] experimentally showed that both lowtemperature and high-temperature PEM fuel cells perform better with metal foam flow field. Carton et al [28] concluded that fuel cell performs better with the open cellular foam than with the conventional flow field designs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative study of conventional and unconventional designs of cathode flow fields in PEM fuel cell

Azarafza

Ismail

Rezakazemi

et al. 2019

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The choice of an appropriate flow field distributor is crucial to circumvent mass and charge transfer resistance-related issues in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this work, incorporating all the anisotropic nature of the gas diffusion layers (GDLs), a three-dimensional, multiphase CFD model is built to perform a comparative study of several types of cathode flow field designs. Three conventional (i.e. parallel, serpentine and interdigitated) and two recently-introduced (i.e. parallel with blocks and the metal foam) flow field designs were considered for the cathode side. The results showed that the best fuel cell performance is obtained with the metal foam flow field as it induces the lowest water saturation, the lowest values and more uniform distribution of current density and temperature as well as relatively medium pressure drop. Compared with the parallel flow field case, the peak power density increases by about 50% when using the metal foam flow field and by about 10% when using the other three investigated flow fields (i.e. serpentine, interdigitated and parallel with blocks). The parametric analysis reveals that the metal foam outperforms other designs at intermediate and high humidity conditions whereas the interdigitated flow field design outperforms other designs at low humidity conditions.

show abstract

Application of metal foams to high temperature PEM fuel cells

Cited by 41 publications

References 27 publications

Overview of porous media/metal foam application in fuel cells and solar power systems

Overview of porous media/metal foam application in fuel cells and solar power systems

Effect of Porous Metal Flow Field in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell under Pressurized Condition

Comparative study of conventional and unconventional designs of cathode flow fields in PEM fuel cell

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About