Effects of Cell Temperature and Reactant Humidification on Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

The performance of an anion exchange membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) under various operating conditions, including cell temperature and humidification of inlet gases, was systematically investigated in this study. The experimental results indicate that the power density of an AEMFC is susceptible to the cell temperature and inlet gas humidification. A high performance AEMFC can be achieved by elevating the cell operating temperature along with the optimization of the gas feed dew points at the anode and cathode. As excess inlet gas humidification at the anode is supplied, the flooding is less severe at a higher cell temperature because the water transport in the gas diffusion substrate by evaporation is more effective upon operation at a higher cell temperature. The cell performance is slightly affected when the humidification at the anode is inadequate, owing to dehydration of the membrane, especially at a higher cell temperature. Furthermore, the cell performance in conditions of under-humidification or over-humidification at the cathode is greatly reduced at the different cell temperatures tested due to the dehydration of the anion exchange membrane and the water shortage or oxygen mass transport limitations, respectively, for the oxygen reduction reaction. In addition, back diffusion could partly support the water demand at the cathode once a water concentration gradient between the anode and cathode is formed. These results, in which sophisticated water management was achieved, can provide useful information regarding the development of high-performance AEMFC systems.

A porous polyethersulfone hollow fiber membrane in a gas humidification process

Porous PES hollow fiber membrane was fabricated and characterized in terms of pore size, porosity and wettability and used in humidification process. The membrane showed high performance compared to the commercial and in-house made membranes.

Research of Improving the Technique of Electrostatic Collection to High Resistivity Dust by Humidifying and Cooling through Ultrasonic Atomization

In order to study the effect of dust removal in the electrostatic precipitator under the influence of change of temperature and air moisture of flue gas, the ultrasonic atomization and electrical heating has been adopted for simulated gas to change its air moisture and temperature. The specific resistance of fly ash of fluidized bed boiler, the V-j characteristics of the precipitator model and the efficiency of dust removal has been tested in gas working conditions. The measured results of dust specific resistance shows that: when the temperature of gas at range of 100°C to 150°C, the specific resistance of dust was lower when the air moisture is at 23.73% than at 5.21%, especially when the gas temperature is below 120°C, the specific resistance of dust reduce more,and it can reach the orders of magnitude at1010Ω·cm when the moisture of 23.73%; then keep the temperature at 150°C and make the moisture increased, the specific resistance of dust is decreased, however it is still more than 1011Ω·cm when the moisture is increased to 23.73%. The measured results of V-j characteristics of the precipitator model shows that: when the moisture keeps at 23.73% and the temperature is below 120°C, the electric field does not occur the phenomenon of anti-corona. The test result of the efficiency of dust removal indicated that: when we make the moisture increased to 23.73% and the gas temperature below 120°C, the efficiency of dust removal shows a significant increase. The results confirmed that we can improve the purification efficiency of high resistivity dust through flue gas humidification and proper temperature maintain.