Nafion® Tubing Humidification System for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells

Abstract

Humidity and temperature have an essential influence on PEM fuel cell system performance. The water content within the polymeric membrane is important for enhancing proton conduction and achieving high efficiency of the system. The combination of non-stationary operation requests and the variability of environment conditions poses an important challenge to maintaining optimal membrane hydration. This paper presents a humidification and thermal control system, to prevent the membrane from drying. The main characteristics of such a device are small size and weight, compactness and robustness, easy implementation on commercial fuel cell, and low power consumption. In particular, the NTHS method was studied in a theoretical approach, tested and optimized in a laboratory and finally applied to a PEMFC of 1 kW that supplied energy for the prototype vehicle IDRA at the Shell Eco-Marathon competition. Using a specific electronic board, which controls several variables and decides the optimal reaction air flow rate, the NTHS was managed. Furthermore, the effects of membrane drying and electrode flooding were presented.

Density Functional Theory Investigation of Temperature-Dependent Properties of Cu-Nitrogen-Doped Graphene as a Cathode Material in Fuel Cell Applications

“…The output voltage, as per the Nernst equation, is directly proportional to the temperature, with a higher temperature resulting in enhanced charge particle kinetics and an increased fuel cell voltage [18]. However, the lowest performance of the fuel cell is observed at around 343.15 K [19]. As Guan et al explained, the reason for the lowest performance at 343.15 K and the highest performance at 393.15 K may be a phase change that occurs with increasing temperature.…”

“…To avoid the limitations of previous studies, a dispersion correction was applied to the DFT calculation. [14,15,19]. Therefore, for this study, 298.15, 353.15, and 393.15 K temperature values were selected to investigate the impact of temperature on the fuel cell performance of Cu 2 -N 8 /Gr as a cathode catalyst in an acidic medium.…”

Development of proton conductive polymer electrolytes composed of sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) and Brønsted acidic ionic liquid (1-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate)

“…To improve these drawbacks for high-performance PEMFCs, research has been converged to develop alternative membranes with good conductivity in anhydrous conditions (above 100 ℃) resulting in the elimination of water saturation/humidity management [5][6][7]. For this purpose, studies have primarily focused on the modi cation of commercially available membranes to enhance the water retention capacity of these membranes [8][9][10][11]. However, recently many studies have been carried out to develop polymeric membranes which can also maintain high proton conductivity, high chemical/thermal resistance, and electrochemical stability in anhydrous conditions.…”

“…10 : The temperature where 10wt.% weight loss has occurred; T 50 : The temperature where 50wt.% weight loss has occurred.…”

Effects of Impurities on Pre-Doped and Post-Doped Membranes for High Temperature PEM Fuel Cell Stacks

“…Hence, their operation is limited to temperatures of up to 100°C if no over-pressure is used. Therefore, liquid water is crucial for the proper operation of a Nafion ® -based LT-PEMFC stack, and different techniques are being explored to enhance the humidification process [5,6].…”