Metal-foam-based cathode flow-field design to improve H2O retention capability of passive air cooled polymer electrolyte fuel cells

Lee, Nammin; Salihi, Hassan; Yoo, Bin; Lee, Jaeseung; Lee, Seung Woo; Jang, Seung Soon; Ju, Hyunchul

doi:10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2020.106702

Cited by 23 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Over the past decade, several studies have been carried out on air-cooled PEMFCs. [16][17][18][19] Various flow-field designs have been proposed. Of these, the parallel, serpentine, and pin-shaped flow patterns are among the most commonly developed ones.…”

Section: List Of Symbolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, simple thermal-fluid simulations are performed to evaluate the heat removal capacity of the flow-field designs. A previous study developed a multi-scale, multi-dimensional, two-phase PEMFC model 16 that was applied to various aircooled PEMFC geometries for comprehensive performance analysis. This study analyzed the uniformity of key species and current density profiles, breakdown of individual overpotentials, and the overall cell performance under different cathode flow-field designs.…”

Section: Transfer Current Density [ / ]mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the present study, a 3D multiphase, multi-scale numerical model developed in a previous study was employed. 16,28 The model was validated against the polarization curves obtained through experiments under various operating conditions and cell geometries. 29 The model considers all the PEMFC components, i.e., the membrane, gas channels (GCs), catalyst layers (CLs), microporous layers (MPLs), GDLs.…”

Section: Numerical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Enhancing Heat Removal and H₂O Retention Capability of Passive Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells by Tailoring Cathode Flow-Field Design

Lim¹,

Jung²,

Vaz³

et al. 2022

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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This paper reports novel cathode flow-field designs for passive typed air-cooled polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) to help alleviate electrolyte dehydration and performance degradation issues under excess dry air supply conditions. The proposed flow-field designs include 7 three-dimensional (3-D) patterned designs in addition to a parallel channel configuration equipped with rectangular baffles to control the airflow for more efficient heat removal. The designs were evaluated numerically using 3-D, two-phase PEMFC simulations. Compared to a typical parallel flow channel configuration, the proposed flow-field designs show better heat removal and water retention capability. The single-cell voltage was improved around 13–75 mV at the operating current density of 0.5 A/cm2, an increase in pressure from 0.9–47-fold increase was required because of the more complex flow-field configurations. This work presents a comprehensive understanding of air-cooled PEMFC operating characteristics under excessive dry air supply conditions and a new design strategy for cathode flow fields.

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Section: List Of Symbolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Transfer Current Density [ / ]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Numerical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Enhancing Heat Removal and H₂O Retention Capability of Passive Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells by Tailoring Cathode Flow-Field Design

Lim¹,

Jung²,

Vaz³

et al. 2022

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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“…They reported that the use of metal foam in open-cathode PEMFC could solve the problems of membrane dehydration and poor air delivery. Lee et al (2021) also used metal foam as the cathode flow field of open-cathode PEMFC. They proposed that the use of metal foam leads to the larger power consumption of the parasitic fan because the pressure drop of the metal foam flow field is about three times higher than that of the parallel flow field.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Optimization of Metal Foam Structural Parameters to Improve the Performance of Open-Cathode Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Wang

Fan

et al. 2022

Front. Therm. Eng.

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Using metal foam as a flow field structure is an attractive route to improve the performance of open-cathode PEMFC. Metal foam has shown great potential in improving the uniformity of reactants, but optimized structure parameters that can more effectively transfer gas and remove excess water are needed. Here we experimentally investigate the effect of metal foam structure parameters on cell performance using polarization curves, power density curves, and electrochemical impedance spectrum (EIS) measurements. By optimizing the pore density, thickness, and compression ratio of the metal foam, the performance of the fuel cell is improved by 49.8%, 42.1%, and 7.3%, respectively. The optimum structure value of metal foam is the pore density of 40 PPI, the thickness of 2.4 mm, and the compression ratio of 4:2.4. In this configuration, the cell could achieve a maximum power density of 0.485 W cm−2. The findings of this work are beneficial for the application of metal foams in open-cathode PEMFC.

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“…7 Compared with water-cooled PEMFCs, air-cooled, and opencathode PEMFCs have been widely preferred for aviation application, particularly in the range of up to a few kW, because they are characterized by simple system design, reduced weight, easy operation, low cost, increased gross efficiency, and less parasitic power failure. 8,9 The fundamental aspect of open-cathode or airbreathing is based on the utilization of ambient air and natural convection in the surrounding environment instead of a compressed flow of oxidants or air past the cathodes. Nevertheless, the major disadvantages of open-cathode or air-breathing PEMFCs are low maximum current densities, problems in extreme climate conditions, and unstable performance.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Water Management and Performance of an Air-Cooled Fuel Cell System Using Pressurized Air for Aviation Applications

Lee¹,

Ghasemi²,

Kim³

et al. 2021

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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Air-cooled fuel cell systems feature a light-weight and simple design and are thus recognized as a suitable technology for drone and aviation applications. As compared to liquid-cooled fuel cell systems, however, they suffer from low specific power per unit volume and unstable performance due to severe electrolyte dehydration and nonuniform profiles of current density and temperature inside a fuel cell stack. Here, we present a high-pressure air-cooled fuel cell system in which atmospheric air is pre-compressed by a compressor and then fed into the fuel cell stack. To minimize the compressor power consumption, the system is designed to recirculate the exhaust air from the fuel cell stack. A three-dimensional two-phase fuel cell model is implemented with a high-pressure air-cooled fuel cell system mainly consisting of an air-cooled fuel cell stack, compressor, air chamber and duct, and heat exchanger and is used to predict superior fuel cell performances under various high-pressure conditions. Simulation results show that the fuel cell operation at 2 atm allows an increase of up to two times the stack power and 1.5 times the net system power compared to a 1-atm fuel cell operation.

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Metal-foam-based cathode flow-field design to improve H2O retention capability of passive air cooled polymer electrolyte fuel cells

Cited by 23 publications

References 35 publications

Enhancing Heat Removal and H₂O Retention Capability of Passive Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells by Tailoring Cathode Flow-Field Design

Enhancing Heat Removal and H₂O Retention Capability of Passive Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells by Tailoring Cathode Flow-Field Design

Experimental Optimization of Metal Foam Structural Parameters to Improve the Performance of Open-Cathode Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Improving Water Management and Performance of an Air-Cooled Fuel Cell System Using Pressurized Air for Aviation Applications

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Metal-foam-based cathode flow-field design to improve H2O retention capability of passive air cooled polymer electrolyte fuel cells

Cited by 23 publications

References 35 publications

Enhancing Heat Removal and H2O Retention Capability of Passive Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells by Tailoring Cathode Flow-Field Design

Enhancing Heat Removal and H2O Retention Capability of Passive Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells by Tailoring Cathode Flow-Field Design

Experimental Optimization of Metal Foam Structural Parameters to Improve the Performance of Open-Cathode Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Improving Water Management and Performance of an Air-Cooled Fuel Cell System Using Pressurized Air for Aviation Applications

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Enhancing Heat Removal and H₂O Retention Capability of Passive Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells by Tailoring Cathode Flow-Field Design

Enhancing Heat Removal and H₂O Retention Capability of Passive Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells by Tailoring Cathode Flow-Field Design