Effect of Cross Flow on Performance of a PEM Fuel Cell

Park, J.; Li, X.; Tran, Tuan Diep; Abdel-Baset, Tarek; Hussey, Daniel S.; Jacobson, David L.; Arif, Muhammad

doi:10.4271/2007-01-0697

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…To further investigate the existence of liquid water in the cell structure, neutron imaging technique has been used to measure the amount of liquid water in the tested cell [29], as shown in Fig. 6.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A flow channel design procedure for PEM fuel cells with effective water removal

Sabir

Park

2007

Journal of Power Sources

175

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A flow channel design procedure for PEM fuel cells with effective water removal

Sabir

Park

2007

Journal of Power Sources

175

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“…[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] The aSi detector at the National Institute of Standards and Technology ͑NIST͒ has a pixel pitch of 0.127 mm and a spatial resolution of approximately 0.25 mm ͑Ref. 10͒.…”

Section: ͓6͔mentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Transport Across a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane under Thermal Gradients

Preston

Pasaogullari

et al. 2011

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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A fundamental experimental and numerical study of the water transport across a perfluorosulfonic acid membrane under a temperature gradient is presented. The water transport phenomenon was experimentally investigated through water flux measurement and neutron radiography. The experimental observations found that water is transported in the direction from the high temperature side to the low temperature side, when both sides of the membrane are sufficiently humidified, and suggest that the transport mechanism is concentration gradient driven. The neutron radiography measurements detected the presence of water content gradient across the membrane and higher water content is seen at a larger thermal gradient. A numerical model was developed to investigate the experimental results. Water transport predictions agreed qualitatively but more accurate material and transport property characterizations are needed for further improvement.High current density operation is desirable in automotive and portable applications of polymer electrolyte fuel cells ͑PEFCs͒ in particular to minimize the size and weight of the system balance of the plant. However, the resulting heat generation due to high overpotentials, predominantly in the cathode catalyst layer, and the Joule heating, especially in the electrolyte, cause a temperature gradient across the polymer electrolyte membrane ͑PEM͒ as well as in gas diffusion media ͑GDM͒. An experimental measurement of the temperature difference of nearly 2 K between the membrane electrode assembly ͑MEA͒ and the bipolar plates with 1.0 K differential across the MEA at current density of 0.6 A/cm 2 has been reported. 1 The nonisothermal nature of the PEFC contributes to a localized dry-out of the PEM, which leads to a deterioration of the performance even when the inlets are sufficiently humidified. On the other hand, during low temperature operation, such as during a start-up, the temperature gradient can also induce unwanted condensation of water in the GDM, a condition known as flooding, which impedes the transport of reacting species. Similar temperature differential across the GDM can also occur during the shutdown process. Thus, establishing a proper water and thermal management is essential for an optimized performance of PEFCs and has been an intensely studied subject over the years; therefore, the present paper aims to understand the description of water transport across a nonisothermal membrane.Water transport across the PEM is known to occur by several driving modes, which include electric potential, water concentration gradients, and hydraulic pressure gradients. In addition to the aforementioned transport modes, water transport in the through-plane direction induced by the presence of a thermal gradient across the PEM has been known to exist for some time but attention toward the phenomenon in PEFCs has been mostly nonexistent in the literature until recently. The few investigators who studied this phenomenon, however, arrived at various conclusions on the mechanism of the transport...

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“…Imaging techniques have various objectives in the field of energy‐related materials such as characterization of the dynamic behavior under varied operating conditions as well as revealing structural properties of these materials . Among the techniques used for water‐management studies of PEMFCs are X‐ray and synchrotron X‐ray imaging, magnet resonance tomography, and neutron imaging . These techniques allow visualizing water distributions under varying operating conditions and to quantify the water content.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved Performance of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells with Modified Microporous Layer Structures

et al. 2017

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A possible method to improve membrane humidity conditions in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells and, therefore, the cell performance is the optimization of microporous layer (MPL) structures. In this work, water transport in modified MPL materials in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) was investigated by in operando synchrotron X‐ray tomography. Three different types of MPLs are compared: A reference standard MPL material, an MPL material with a special wavy structure, and an MPL with randomly distributed holes. We found a strong impact of the modified MPL structure on the water distribution at operating temperatures of 40 and 55 °C and an increase of cell performance up to 14 % compared to the reference cell. We assume the water distribution at the membrane to be responsible for the performance increase and provide a detailed discussion.

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Effect of Cross Flow on Performance of a PEM Fuel Cell

Cited by 4 publications

References 28 publications

A flow channel design procedure for PEM fuel cells with effective water removal

A flow channel design procedure for PEM fuel cells with effective water removal

Water Transport Across a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane under Thermal Gradients

Improved Performance of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells with Modified Microporous Layer Structures

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