A Review on PEM Fuel Cells Used for Automotive Applications, Models and Hydrogen Storage for Hybrid Electric Fuel Cell Vehicle

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kannihalli Bhaskar ◽  
Jenoris Muthiya Solomon ◽  
Ravishankar Sathyamurthy ◽  
Shridhar Anaimuthu ◽  
Nadana Kumar Vinayagam
2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Verma ◽  
R. Pitchumani

Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells are well suited for automotive applications compared to other types of fuel cells owing to their faster transient response and low-temperature operation. Due to rapid change in loads during automotive applications, study of dynamic behavior is of paramount importance. This study focuses on elucidating the transient response of a PEM fuel cell for specified changes in operating parameters, namely, voltage, pressure, and stoichiometry at the cathode and the anode. Transient numerical simulations are carried out for a single-channel PEM fuel cell to illustrate the response of power as the operating parameters are subjected to specified changes. These parameters are also optimized with an objective to match the power requirements of an automotive drive cycle over a certain period of time.


Catalysts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 393
Author(s):  
Zhemin Du ◽  
Congmin Liu ◽  
Junxiang Zhai ◽  
Xiuying Guo ◽  
Yalin Xiong ◽  
...  

Nowadays, we face a series of global challenges, including the growing depletion of fossil energy, environmental pollution, and global warming. The replacement of coal, petroleum, and natural gas by secondary energy resources is vital for sustainable development. Hydrogen (H2) energy is considered the ultimate energy in the 21st century because of its diverse sources, cleanliness, low carbon emission, flexibility, and high efficiency. H2 fuel cell vehicles are commonly the end-point application of H2 energy. Owing to their zero carbon emission, they are gradually replacing traditional vehicles powered by fossil fuel. As the H2 fuel cell vehicle industry rapidly develops, H2 fuel supply, especially H2 quality, attracts increasing attention. Compared with H2 for industrial use, the H2 purity requirements for fuel cells are not high. Still, the impurity content is strictly controlled since even a low amount of some impurities may irreversibly damage fuel cells’ performance and running life. This paper reviews different versions of current standards concerning H2 for fuel cell vehicles in China and abroad. Furthermore, we analyze the causes and developing trends for the changes in these standards in detail. On the other hand, according to characteristics of H2 for fuel cell vehicles, standard H2 purification technologies, such as pressure swing adsorption (PSA), membrane separation and metal hydride separation, were analyzed, and the latest research progress was reviewed.


2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 290-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuo-Jen Lee ◽  
Ching-Han Huang ◽  
Yu-Pang Chen ◽  
Chen-Te Hsu

Aluminum was considered a good candidate material for bipolar plates of the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells due to its low cost, light weight, high strength and good manufacturability. But there were problems of both chemical and electrochemical corrosions in the PEM fuel cell operating environment. The major goals of this research are to find proper physical vapor deposition (PVD) coating materials which would enhance surface properties by making significant improvements on corrosion resistance and electrical conductivity at a reasonable cost. Several coating materials had been studied to analyze their corrosion resistance improvement. The corrosion rates of all materials were tested in a simulated fuel cell environment. The linear polarization curve of electrochemical method measured by potentiostat instrument was employed to determine the corrosion current. Results of the corrosion tests indicated that all of the coating materials had good corrosion resistance and were stable in the simulated fuel cell environment. The conductivities of the coated layers were better and the resistances changed very little after the corrosion test. At last, single fuel cells were made by each PVD coating material. Fuel cell tests were conducted to determine their performance w.r.t. that was made of graphite. The results of fuel cell tests indicated that metallic bipolar plates with PVD coating could be used in PEM fuel cells.


2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (16) ◽  
pp. 1650155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ebrahim Afshari ◽  
Masoud Ziaei-Rad ◽  
Nabi Jahantigh

In PEM fuel cells, during electrochemical generation of electricity more than half of the chemical energy of hydrogen is converted to heat. This heat of reactions, if not exhausted properly, would impair the performance and durability of the cell. In general, large scale PEM fuel cells are cooled by liquid water that circulates through coolant flow channels formed in bipolar plates or in dedicated cooling plates. In this paper, a numerical method has been presented to study cooling and temperature distribution of a polymer membrane fuel cell stack. The heat flux on the cooling plate is variable. A three-dimensional model of fluid flow and heat transfer in cooling plates with 15 cm × 15 cm square area is considered and the performances of four different coolant flow field designs, parallel field and serpentine fields are compared in terms of maximum surface temperature, temperature uniformity and pressure drop characteristics. By comparing the results in two cases, the constant and variable heat flux, it is observed that applying constant heat flux instead of variable heat flux which is actually occurring in the fuel cells is not an accurate assumption. The numerical results indicated that the straight flow field model has temperature uniformity index and almost the same temperature difference with the serpentine models, while its pressure drop is less than all of the serpentine models. Another important advantage of this model is the much easier design and building than the spiral models.


Author(s):  
Luis Breziner ◽  
Peter Strahs ◽  
Parsaoran Hutapea

The objective of this research is to analyze the effects of vibration on the performance of hydrogen PEM fuel cells. It has been reported that if the liquid water transport across the gas diffusion layer (GDL) changes, so does the overall cell performance. Since many fuel cells operate under a vibrating environment –as in the case of automotive applications, this may influence the liquid water concentration across the GDL at different current densities, affecting the overall fuel cell performance. The problem was developed in two main steps. First, the basis for an analytical model was established using current models for water transport in porous media. Then, a series of experiments were carried, monitoring the performance of the fuel cell for different parameters of oscillation. For sinusoidal vibration at 10, 20 and 50Hz (2 g of magnitude), a decrease in the fuel cell performance by 2.2%, 1.1% and 1.3% was recorded when compared to operation at no vibration respectively. For 5 g of magnitude, the fuel cell reported a drop of 5.8% at 50 Hz, whereas at 20 Hz the performance increased by 1.3%. Although more extensive experimentation is needed to identify a relationship between magnitude and frequency of vibration affecting the performance of the fuel cell as well as a throughout examination of the liquid water formation in the cathode, this study shows that sinusoidal vibration, overall, affects the performance of PEM fuel cells.


Author(s):  
Ivan Vasyukov ◽  

Static and dynamic computer models of fuel cells are considered. A static model is determined that most ac-curately reproduces the current-voltage characteristic of a real fuel cell. A method for tuning it according to the experimental I - V characteristic by the least squares method is proposed. A method for its adjustment ac-cording to the experimental I - V characteristic by the method of gradient descent is proposed. A modified elec-trical equivalent circuit of a fuel cell has been developed, which simulates its dynamic response, taking into ac-count the damping effect of eddy currents during operation of a stack of fuel cells on a pulse voltage converter. A method is proposed for determining the parameters of the model from the experimental oscillograms of the current and voltage of the stack. A universal model of a stack of fuel cells in LTspice has been developed, which makes it possible to simulate a dynamic response and, if necessary, simulate a real static I – V characteristic of the stack.


Author(s):  
Saeed Kazemiabnavi ◽  
Aneet Soundararaj ◽  
Haniyeh Zamani ◽  
Bjoern Scharf ◽  
Priya Thyagarajan ◽  
...  

In recent years, there has been increased interest in fuel cells as a promising energy storage technology. The environmental impacts due to the extensive fossil fuel consumption is becoming increasingly important as greenhouse gas (GHG) levels in the atmosphere continue to rise rapidly. Furthermore, fuel cell efficiencies are not limited by the Carnot limit, a major thermodynamic limit for power plants and internal combustion engines. Therefore, hydrogen fuel cells could provide a long-term solution to the automotive industry, in its search for alternate propulsion systems. Two most important methods for hydrogen delivery to fuel cells used for vehicle propulsion were evaluated in this study, which are fuel processing and hydrogen storage. Moreover, the average fuel cost and the greenhouse gas emission for hydrogen fuel cell (H2 FCV) and gasoline fuel cell (GFCV) vehicles are compared to that of a regular gasoline vehicle based on the Argonne National Lab’s GREET model. The results show that the average fuel cost per 100 miles for a H2 FCV can be up to 57% lower than that of regular gasoline vehicles. Moreover, the obtained results confirm that the well to wheel greenhouse gas emission of both H2 FCV and GFCV is significantly less than that of regular gasoline vehicles. Furthermore, the investment return period for hydrogen storage techniques are compared to fuel processing methods. A qualitative safety and infrastructure dependency comparison of hydrogen storage and fuel processing methods is also presented.


10.6036/10099 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol DYNA-ACELERADO (0) ◽  
pp. [ 8 pp.]-[ 8 pp.]
Author(s):  
SALAH KAMAL ◽  
ATTIA EL-FERGANY ◽  
EHAB EHAB ELSAYED ELATTAR ◽  
AHMED AGWA

The accuracy of fuel cell (FC) models is important for the further numerical simulations and analysis at several conditions. The electrical (I-V) characteristic of the polymer exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) has high degree of nonlinearity comprising uncertain seven parameters as they aren’t given in fabricator's datasheets. These seven parameters need to be obtained to have the PEMFC model in order. This research addresses an up-to-date application of the gradient-based optimizer (GBO) to generate the best estimated values of such uncertain parameters. The estimation of these uncertain parameters is adapted as optimization problem having a cost function (CF) subjects to set of self-constrained limits. Three test cases of widely used PEMFCs units; namely, SR-12, 250-W module and NedStack PS6 to appraise the performance of the GBO are demonstrated and analyzed. The best values of the CF are 0.000142, 0.33598, and 2.10025 V2 for SR-12, 250-W module and NedStack PS6; respectively. Furthermore, the assessment of the GBO-based model is made by comparing its obtained results with the experiential results of these typical PEMFCs plus comparisons to other methods. At a due stage, many scenarios as a result of operating variations in regard to inlet regulation pressures and unit temperatures are performed. The copped reported results of the studied scenarios indicate the effectiveness of the GBO in establishing an accurate PEMFC model.


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