Measurement of liquid water content in cathode gas diffusion electrode of polymer electrolyte fuel cell

2010 ◽  
Vol 195 (11) ◽  
pp. 3365-3373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kosuke Nishida ◽  
Takeshi Murakami ◽  
Shohji Tsushima ◽  
Shuichiro Hirai
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte ◽  
Liquid Water ◽  
Liquid Water Content ◽  
Gas Diffusion ◽  
Gas Diffusion Electrode ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell

Effect of Operating Temperature on the Water Removal in a Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanyuan Shi ◽  
Nobuyuki Oshima ◽  
L. Kumar Saha ◽  
Eru Kurihara
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte ◽  
Liquid Water ◽  
Water Saturation ◽  
Operating Temperature ◽  
Gas Diffusion ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell ◽  
Water Removal ◽  
Operation Temperature ◽  
Increasing Temperature

In order to investigate the effect of operation temperature on the liquid water removal in the polymer electrolyte fuel cell, a one-dimensional steady state mathematical model was developed for the cathode gas diffusion layer (GDL). Numerical results indicate that liquid water saturation significantly increases with increases in the operating temperature of the fuel cell because the capillary pressure in the hydrophobic GDL decreases with increasing temperature. An elevated operating temperature has an undesirable influence on the removal of liquid water inside the GDL. A reported peculiar phenomenon in which the flooding of the fuel cell under a high operating temperature and an over-saturated environment is more serious in a GDL combined with a micro-porous layer (MPL) than in a GDL without an MPL (Lim and Wang, Electrochimica Acta, 49, pp. 4149–4156, 2004) is explained based on the present analysis.

Effect of Liquid Water Saturation on Oxygen Transport in Gas Diffusion Layers of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Shiomi ◽  
Richard S. Fu ◽  
Ugur Pasaogullari ◽  
Yuichiro Tabuchi ◽  
Shinichi Miyazaki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cells ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte ◽  
Liquid Water ◽  
Water Saturation ◽  
Liquid Water Content ◽  
Gas Diffusion ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells ◽  
Oxygen Diffusivity ◽  
Liquid Saturation

Improved oxygen diffusivity is essential for reducing mass transport losses in polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs). In this work, effective oxygen diffusivity in the presence of liquid water inside a gas diffusion layer (GDL) was investigated by means of coupled experimental and numerical analyses. In order to control the liquid water content inside the GDL, a temperature gradient method was developed. In a separate experiment liquid water content inside the GDL was measured by neutron radiography (NR) and analyzed by using a two-phase, non-isothermal numerical model. The model accurately reproduced the total liquid water content and was in qualitative agreement with the liquid saturation trend as obtained from the NR experiments, which was utilized to estimate the liquid saturation in the limiting current experiment. Based on the predicted liquid water profile, the dependence of effective oxygen diffusivity on the liquid water saturation is deduced. It is found that the Bruggeman exponent factor is much larger than the predictions from network models and this suggests that the understanding of the relationship between liquid water transport and the GDL local structure is important.

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