A Fuel Cell Stack Architecture to Make all Cells Have Equal Operational Conditions and Performance

Author(s):  
Hong Liu ◽  
Peiwen Li ◽  
Alexandra Hartz

This paper presents a novel architecture for a proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack, which is based on the concept that every cell in the stack works at the same condition and thus each cell has the same contribution to the overall output voltage and power. To meet this proposed requirement, special flow distributors were used to evenly distribute fuel and airflow to every fuel cell in the stack. Details of the flow distributor and experimental tests of a four-cell fuel cell stack are presented in the paper. The experimental results demonstrated the desired high performance of the fuel cell stack. It is proved that the novel architecture for fuel cell stack is successful and of significance to the development of high performance fuel cell stacks.

2010 ◽  
Vol 195 (18) ◽  
pp. 6008-6015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tae-Hoon Kim ◽  
Sang-Hyun Kim ◽  
Wook Kim ◽  
Jong-Hak Lee ◽  
Kwan-Seok Cho ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gukan Rajaram ◽  
Manoj Kumar Panthalingal ◽  
Parthasarathy Valivittan

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is very good at producing energy without the emission of any harmful gases. In this work, emphasis has been given towards controlling the water accumulation inside the cell stack. The effective cooling of the fuel cell during operation can significantly improve the efficiency. Also, flooding and dehydration conditions are most common reasons for the efficiency reduction and performance degradation of the fuel cells. In the current work, the problem is addressed by controlling the number of cells in operation through a specifically designed microcontroller. The controller would switch the cells on/off when the need arises which can be diagnosed by thermocouple by virtue of cell temperature. Automatic switching with the microcontroller is performed without disturbing the stack operation. This could improve the cell performance with reduced flooding/dehydration of the stack. So the same stack life may be improved substantially.


Author(s):  
Frano Barbir ◽  
Haluk Gorgun ◽  
Xinting Wang

Pressure drop on the cathode side of a PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) fuel cell stack has been studied and used as a diagnostic tool. Since the Reynolds number at the beginning of the flow field channel was <250, the flow through the channel is laminar, and the relationship between the pressure drop and the flow rate is linear. Some departure from linearity was observed when water was either introduced in the stack or produced inside the stack in the electrochemical reaction. By monitoring the pressure drop in conjunction with the cell resistance in an operational fuel cell stack, it was possible to diagnose either flooding or drying conditions inside the stack.


2022 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Xiuqin Zhang ◽  
Wentao Cheng ◽  
Qiubao Lin ◽  
Longquan Wu ◽  
Junyi Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) based on syngas are a promising technology for electric vehicle applications. To increase the fuel conversion efficiency, the low-temperature waste heat from the PEMFC is absorbed by a refrigerator. The absorption refrigerator provides cool air for the interior space of the vehicle. Between finishing the steam reforming reaction and flowing into the fuel cell, the gases release heat continuously. A Brayton engine is introduced to absorb heat and provide a useful power output. A novel thermodynamic model of the integrated system of the PEMFC, refrigerator, and Brayton engine is established. Expressions for the power output and efficiency of the integrated system are derived. The effects of some key parameters are discussed in detail to attain optimum performance of the integrated system. The simulation results show that when the syngas consumption rate is 4.0 × 10−5 mol s−1cm−2, the integrated system operates in an optimum state, and the product of the efficiency and power density reaches a maximum. In this case, the efficiency and power density of the integrated system are 0.28 and 0.96 J s−1 cm−2, respectively, which are 46% higher than those of a PEMFC.


2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (7) ◽  
pp. 2605-2614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kailin Fu ◽  
Tian Tian ◽  
Yanan Chen ◽  
Shang Li ◽  
Chao Cai ◽  
...  

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