Injection moulded composite bipolar plates for a portable hydrogen fuel cell charger

Abstract

Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that convert the chemical energy of a reactants directly into electricity and heat with high efficiency. Proton Exchange Membrane or Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cells are one of the most common type of fuel cells. In a convection PEM fuel cell, the oxygen from air is introduced to the cathode and hydrogen is introduced to anode. Between the anode and cathode electrodes is sandwiched the polymer electrolyte membrane. The hydrogen molecules break apart into protons and electrons due to the reaction helped by catalysts. The protons travel through the membrane to the cathode and electrons travel to an external circuit. At cathode side the protons, electrons and oxygen molecules combine to form water. Research work was directed to the study of hydrogen fuel cell power systems for portable applications. Last decade the industry developed portable power systems based on hydrogen fuel cell, mobile telephone chargers, vehicles energy supply. In this paper are presented the experiments with a hydrogen fuel cell stack in which were assembled resin filled graphite bipolar plates and then injection moulded polymeric conductive composite bipolar plates and results were compared concluding that injection moulded bipolar plates could represent an attractive alternative in building efficient fuel cell portable power systems.

Processing methods for conductive polymer composite bipolar plates: Effect on plate quality and performance

“…Advantages of IM include low labor cost, minimal scrap losses, ability to use a wide range of materials to mold complex three-dimensional shapes easily, high precision, and short production cycles [55][56][57]. The main focus of most studies on injection-molded BPs is the development of composites that meet the performance requirements for PEMFC BPs [58][59][60][61][62]. Serban and Opran [59] conducted a study to compare the performance of injection-molded filled PP BPs in a single FC stack to that in which the gas channels were machined on a compression-molded thermoset resin/G composite plate.…”

“…The main focus of most studies on injection-molded BPs is the development of composites that meet the performance requirements for PEMFC BPs [58][59][60][61][62]. Serban and Opran [59] conducted a study to compare the performance of injection-molded filled PP BPs in a single FC stack to that in which the gas channels were machined on a compression-molded thermoset resin/G composite plate. The results revealed that the machined BPs exhibited a better performance for the voltage with no load (4.10 V) compared to the injectionmolded plates (3.92 V).…”

Polymer based flow field plates for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell and the scope of additive manufacturing: A techno‐economic review

“…125 San and Okur observed that high moulding temperatures led to the development of gas bubbles on polymer surfaces, which deforms the material. 126 Curing will be required to counteract the distortion; however, this will lead to an increase in manufacturing time and costs as reported by Taormina et al 127 In addition, in the long term, the economic situation of this production method must be examined more closely for any target application. An alternative manufacturing process based on injection moulding or hot stamping by rollers is currently under investigation and not commercially available yet.…”

Performance Evaluation for Ultra-Lightweight Epoxy-Based Bipolar Plate Production with Cycle Time Reduction of Reactive Molding Process

“…In terms of the reinforcement types, carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites, carbon-carbon composites, hybrid composites, and structural composites have been created for the improvement of mechanical strength and electrical conductivity [ 23 , 24 ]. The structure composites can be divided into two categories which are sandwich panels and laminated composites [ 25 , 26 ]. In this work, the laminated composite was selected to produce an electrically conductive BP.…”