Experimental Study of Effects of Operating Conditions on Water Transport Phenomena in the Cathode of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell

Author(s):  
Sang Hern Seo ◽  
Chang Sik Lee

Water management in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells is important because fuel cell performance may be lower when flooding emerges. In addition, the proton conductivity and water transport coefficient in the membrane depend on the hydration of the membrane. In this study a water transport phenomenon in the cathode channels of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell was investigated under various operating conditions. To obtain images of the water the transparent fuel cell had a polycarbonate window installed at the cathode end plate, and gold-coated stainless steel was used for the flow field and current collector of the cathode. The effects of operating conditions on water transport manipulated operating parameters such as cell temperature, cathode flow rate, and cathode backpressure. As the operating time elapsed, it was observed that water droplet formation, growth, coalescence, and removal occurred in the cathode channel. It concluded that a high cathode flow rate prevented flooding by removing water from the cathode flow channel. Also, the quantity of water droplets increased with a high cathode backpressure.

Author(s):  
Sang Hern Seo ◽  
Chang Sik Lee

Water management is very important for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell because the fuel cell performance is decreased by flooding phenomena generated by liquid water in the cathode channels. In addition, the proton conductivity and water transport of membrane could become different by hydration contents of membrane. This study is observed water transport phenomena of cathode channels with a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell according to various operating conditions. In order to obtain the water images, the transparent fuel cell consists of polycarbonate window of the cathode end plate and gold coated stainless steel as the flow field and current collector of the cathode. To investigate the effects of operating conditions on the water transport, experiments were conducted under various operating conditions such as cell temperature, cathode flow rate and cathode backpressure. As operating time elapsed, it is observed that the water droplet formation, growth, coalescence and removal occurred in the cathode channel. It can be known that the high cathode flow rate prevents water flooding by removal of water in the cathode flow channel. Also, the quantity of water droplet was increased by the high cathode backpressure.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 1400-1406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuta Nabae ◽  
Mayu Sonoda ◽  
Chiharu Yamauchi ◽  
Yo Hosaka ◽  
Ayano Isoda ◽  
...  

A Pt-free cathode catalyst for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells has been developed by multi-step pyrolysis of Fe phthalocyanine and phenolic resin and shows a quite promising fuel cell performance.


2018 ◽  
Vol 402 ◽  
pp. 15-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bredol ◽  
Aleksandra Szydło ◽  
Ivan Radev ◽  
Wladimir Philippi ◽  
Roland Bartholomäus ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 3575-3587
Author(s):  
Seyedali Sabzpoushan ◽  
Hassan Jafari Mosleh ◽  
Soheil Kavian ◽  
Mohsen Saffari Pour ◽  
Omid Mohammadi ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Vinaykumar Konduru ◽  
Ezequiel Medici ◽  
Jeffrey S. Allen

Understanding the water transport in the Porous Transport Layer (PTL) is important to improve the operational performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). High water content in the PTL and flow channel decreases the transport of the gas reactants to the polymer electrolyte membrane. Dry operating conditions result in increased ohmic resistance of the polymer electrolyte membrane. Both cases result in decreased fuel cell performance. Multi-phase flow in the PTL of the fuel cell is simulated as a network of pores surrounded by the solid material. The pore-phase and the solid-phase of the PTL are generated by varying the parameters of the Weibull distribution function. In the network model, the mass transfer takes place in the pore-phase and the bulk heat transfer takes place in the both the solid-phase and liquid phase of the PTL. Previous studies have looked at the thermal and mass transport in the porous media considering the pore size distribution. In the present study, the sensitivity of the thermal and mass transport to the different arrangements of the solid-phase is carried out and the effect of different solid-phase distributions on the thermal and liquid transport in PTL of PEM fuel cell are discussed.


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