Pore-network modeling of liquid water flow in gas diffusion layers of proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Fluid flow through the gas diffusion layer (GDL) of fuel cells is numerically studied using a pore network modeling approach. The model is developed based on an experimental visualization technique (fluorescence microscopy). The images obtained from this technique are analyzed to find patterns of flow inside the GDL samples with different hydrophobicity. Three different flow patterns are observed: initial invasion, progression, and pore-filling. The observation shows that liquid water flows into the majority of available pores on the boundary of the untreated GDL and several branches are segregated from the initial pathways. For the treated GDL, however, a handful of boundary pores are invaded and the original pathways extend toward the other side of the medium with minimum branching. The numerical model, developed based on an invasion percolation algorithm, is used to study the effects of GDL hydrophobicity and thickness on the flow configuration and breakthrough time as well as to determine the flow rate and saturation in different GDL samples. During the injection of water into the samples, it is numerically shown that the flow rates are monotonically decreasing for both treated and untreated samples. For the treated sample, however, the injection flow rate is constantly lower than that of the untreated sample, resulting in a lower overall water saturation at breakthrough. The numerical results also suggest that hydrophobic treatment of thick samples has minor effects on water management and overall performance. The developed model can be used to optimize the GDL properties for designing porous medium with effective transport characteristics.     

Characterization of crud deposited on fuel rods under HWC environment in Kuosheng Nuclear Power Plant

Under normal water chemistry conditions, the oxygen and hydrogen peroxide produced by water radiolysis in the coolant of boiling water reactors(BWRs) can lead to intergranular stress corrosion cracking in the constituent materials of plant components. This fact has led to the wide-scale adoption of hydrogen water chemistry(HWC) in the nuclear industry to counteract these effects.This study seeks to characterize the metallic composition and the surface properties of the constituent materials of plant components in order to determine their effects on the accumulation of chalk river unidentified deposits(crud) on fuel rods in the BWR Unit-1 of the Kuosheng Nuclear Power Plant in Taiwan. Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy was used to calculate the concentrations of surface crud and gamma spectrometry was used to determine the radioactivity of the corrosion products, as well as their axial distribution across the surface of the fuel rods. X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were used to identify the crystalline phase and morphology of the crud as irregular shapes and flakes. The amount of crud deposited during the fourth fuel cycle exceeded that of the third fuel cycle due to extended burn-up time. Our analytical results indicate that the implementation of HWC had no significant effect on the characteristics of subsequent crud.     

Modelization of hybrid systems with hydrogen and renewable energy oriented to electric propulsion in sailboats

This paper presents a conceptual model of a hybrid electric sailboat in which energy from electric grid is stored in batteries and energy from renewable energies (eolic, solar and hydro) is stored as hydrogen. The main objective of this model is to study the viability of electrifying traditional sailboats with internal combustion engines into hybrid systems with batteries and fuel cell. The most important advantage of this design is the possibility to reduce up to zero emissions of traditional sailboat. Conversion of renewable energy to hydrogen is performed through an electrolyzer and post conversion to energy is carried out by a fuel cell. The fuel cell with the batteries forms the hybrid system (batteries-fuel cell) for propulsion electrical energy supply. In order to model the boat dynamic and energy systems, modular mathematical models were developed under Matlab^®-Simulink^®, using a fixed-step solver for the simulation of global model. A simulated logic controller manages the global model. In this paper, many models have been used: some of them are based in literature models and others were developed from experimental data. A control strategy has also been developed to manage energy flows and then it has been embedded to Matlab^® language. The global model permits test the performance of the sailboat.     

Modeling a hydrogen pressure regulator in a fuel cell system with Joule–Thomson effect

Fuel cell vehicles offer significant sustainability benefits by eliminating tailpipe emissions, increasing powertrain efficiency, and utilizing hydrogen that can be supplied from various sources including renewables. A pressure regulator in the hydrogen storage system on a fuel cell vehicle is an important component to ensure that the hydrogen delivery to the fuel cell stack meets the pressure and temperature requirements. A validated model of the regulator can be used to support the product design and optimization of the operating strategy. In this work, a pressure regulator model has been developed to capture the hydrogen discharge behaviors from the compressed hydrogen tank to the fuel cell stack. The focus of the model is to develop the pressure and temperature relationship at the regulator outlet given the inlet conditions from the storage tank. Besides the ideal-gas based derivation for pressure response, the model has used a constant-enthalpy approach to capture the hydrogen temperature increase associated with the pressure drop due to the Joule–Thomson effect. The model was validated with various testing data including hysteresis and dynamic flow conditions, showing satisfactory agreement. The validated model was then used for parametric studies. The modeling results concluded that the regulator inlet temperature has the strongest influence on raising the outlet temperature, while the regulator inlet pressure is an important factor although secondary to the inlet temperature. The comprehensive regulator modeling developed in this work provides the foundation for assessing and optimizing a key dynamic component in the hydrogen storage system.     

Integrated standalone hybrid solar PV,fuel cell and diesel generator power system for battery or supercapacitor storage systems in Khorfakkan,United Arab Emirates

Renewable energy resources play a very important rule these days to assist the conventional energy systems for doing its function in the UAE due to high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy demand. In this paper, the analysis and performance of integrated standalone hybrid solar PV, fuel cell and diesel generator power system with battery energy storage system (BESS) or supercapacitor energy storage system (SCESS) in Khorfakkan city, Sharjah were presented. HOMER Pro software was used to model and simulate the hybrid energy system (HES) based on the daily energy consumption for Khorfakkan city. The simulation results show that using SCESS as an energy storage system will help the performance of HES based on the Levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The HES with SCESS has renewable fraction (68.1%) and 0.346 $/kWh LCOE. The HES meets the annual AC primary load of the city (13.6 GWh) with negligible electricity excess and with an unmet electrical load of 1.38%. The reduction in GHG emissions for HES with SCESS was 83.2%, equivalent to saving 814,428 gallons of diesel.     

Dynamics and control of a thermally self-sustaining energy storage system using integrated solid oxide cells for an islanded building

A solid oxide cell-based energy system is proposed for a solar-powered stand-alone building. The system is comprised of a 5 kW_el solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), a 9.5 kW_el solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC), and the required balance of plant. The SOFC supplies: 1- building demand in the absence of sufficient solar power, 2- heat for SOEC in endothermic and standby modes. Thermal integration of SOFC and SOEC is implemented through a network of heat exchangers, combined with set of control algorithms. Two control strategies were implemented to actuate the SOFC in response to endothermic heat demands of SOEC by manipulating: 1- electric power, 2- fuel utilization. The results of dynamic simulation of system for two scenarios (sunny day and cloudy day) showed successful compliance of temperature constraints with both methods. Manipulation of fuel utilization, however, resulted in better system performance in terms of efficiency and H₂ balance.     

Optimization of equipment capacity and an operational method based on cost analysis of a fuel cell microgrid

A microgrid requires a stable supply of electric power and heat, which is achieved by the cooperative operation of two or more pieces of equipment. The equipment capacity and the operational method of the equipment were optimized using a newly developed orthogonal array-GA (genetic algorithm) hybrid method for an independent microgrid accompanied by a fuel cell cascade system, solar water electrolysis, battery, and heat storage. This type of system had not been hardly developed until now. The objective function of the proposed system was the minimization of the total amount of equipment and fuel cost over ten years. For the first step in the proposed analysis method, the capacity of each piece of equipment and the operational method, which are considered to be close to the optimal solution of the system, are combined using the orthogonal array and factorial-effect chart, which are an experimental design technique. In the next step, the combination described above provides the initial values to the GA, and the GA searches for the optimal capacity and operational method for each piece of equipment in question. Compared with a simple GA, the convergence characteristic improves greatly using the proposed analysis method developed in this study.     

Influence of different carbon nanostructures on the electrocatalytic activity and stability of Pt supported electrocatalysts

Commercially available graphitized carbon nanofibers and multi-walled carbon nanotubes, two carbon materials with very different structure, have been functionalized in a nitric–sulfuric acid mixture. Further on, the materials have been platinized by a microwave assisted polyol method. The relative degree of graphitization has been estimated by means of Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction while the relative concentration of oxygen containing groups has been estimated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, which resulted in a graphitic character trend: Pt/GNF > Pt/F-GNF ? Pt/MWCNT > Pt/F-MWCNT. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the Pt particle size is around 3 nm for all samples, which was similar to the crystallite size obtained by X-ray diffraction. The activity towards electrochemical reduction of oxygen has been quantified using the thin-film rotating disk electrode, which has shown that all the samples have a better activity than the commercially available electrocatalysts. The trend obtained for the graphitic character maintained for the electrochemical activity, while the reverse trend has been obtained for the accelerated ageing test. Long-term potential cycling has demonstrated that the functionalization improves the stability for multi-walled carbon nanotubes, at the cost of decreased activity.     

Electric-field-aligned functionalized-layered double hydroxide/polyphenyl ether composite membrane for ion transport

To address the insufficient ion conductivity of hydroxide exchange membranes (HEMs) used in alkali membrane fuel cells (AMFCs), we present a series of aligned layered double hydroxide (LDH)/polyphenyl ether (PPO) composite membranes based on the electrorheological effect. The hexagonal LDH was functionalized with N-spirocyclic ammonium (ASU-LDH) to enhance the electrorheological effect of the ASU-LDH as well as improve the ion conductivity of the ASU-LDH. The aligned ASU-LDH/triple-cation-functionalized PPO (ASU-LDH/TC-PPO) composite membranes were prepared by applied-electric field. The effective electric-induced ion channels (EICs) were constructed by aligned ASU-LDH nanosheets in HEMs, which are distinctly observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Notably, these EICs-contained ASU-LDH/TC-PPO composite membranes exhibit the higher ion conductivity and alkaline stability than those of normal TC-PPO and ASU-LDH/TC-PPO membranes. It is worth noticing that these EICs are different with the traditional phase-induced ion channels, the EICs show the shorter ion transport distances and broader water channels in HEMs. Attributing to EICs, the longitudinal ion conductivity of aligned ASU-LDH/TC-PPO membrane shows 32.2% and 18.7% improvement compared to pristine TC-PPO and normal ASU-LDH/TC-PPO membrane. The maximum ion conductivity of the aligned ASU-LDH/TC-PPO composite membrane reaches to 109.8 mS/cm at 80 °C. The long-term stability test shows that the aligned ASU-LDH/TC-PPO membranes still exhibit enhancing alkali resistance (83.2%) in 1 M KOH at 80 °C for 500 h. In brief, this work provides a novel and effective approach to prepare high-performance HEMs.     

Thermal management in PEMFCs: The respective effects of porous media in the gas flow channel

This study aims to evaluate the convective heat transfer enhancement of the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) numerically. As the higher heat transfer surfaces lead to higher heat transfer rates, a flat plate porous layer is utilized in the gas flow channel (GFC). This enhancement in heat transfer stems from the corresponding modification in the temperature and velocity profiles. The influencing parameters on these profiles are the thickness, permeability, and porosity of the GFC porous layer. After performing the simulations, the results indicate that convective heat transfer has a direct relationship with GFC porous layer's thickness and permeability. However, lower values of porosity lead to the higher Nusselt numbers. Previous investigations have also mentioned the positive impact of the microporous layer (MPL) on the water management of these fuel cells. Therefore, six different sizes of MPL and the gas diffusion layer (GDL) are utilized to evaluate their impacts on the thermal management. Results indicate that although these sizes have negligible effects on the heat transfer, Nu increases by enhancing the total size of MPL and GDL. The results also show that thicker MPLs lead to higher heat transfer rates. The evaluation of the friction factor also indicates the adverse effect of the GFC porous layer, although this undesirable effect is negligible. Finally, all the simulated values are utilized to train an artificial neural network (ANN) model with high precision. This ANN model can produce more data for sensitivity analysis and presenting respective 3D diagrams of the influencing parameters on heat transfer.