Uneven gas diffusion layer intrusion in gas channel arrays of proton exchange membrane fuel cell and its effects on flow distribution

Intrusion of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) into gas channels due to fuel cell compression has a major impact on the gas flow distribution, fuel cell performance and durability. In this work, the effect of compression resulting in GDL intrusion in individual parallel PEMFC channels is investigated. The intrusion is determined using two methods: an optical measurement in both the in-plane and through-plane directions of GDL, as well as an analytical fluid flow model based on individual channel flow rate measurements. The intrusion measurements and estimates obtained from these methods agree well with each other. An uneven distribution of GDL intrusion into individual parallel channels is observed. A non-uniform compression force distribution derived from the clamping bolts causes a higher intrusion in the end channels. The heterogeneous GDL structure and physical properties may also contribute to the uneven GDL intrusion. As a result of uneven intrusion distribution, severe flow maldistribution and increased pressure drop have been observed. The intrusion data can be further used to determine the mechanical properties of GDL materials. Using the finite element analysis software program ANSYS, the Young's modulus of the GDL from these measurements is estimated to be 30.9 MPa.     

A review of water flooding issues in the proton exchange membrane fuel cell

We have reviewed more than 100 references that are related to water management in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, with a particular focus on the issue of water flooding, its diagnosis and mitigation. It was found that extensive work has been carried out on the issues of flooding during the last two decades, including prediction through numerical modeling, detection by experimental measurements, and mitigation through the design of cell components and manipulating the operating conditions. Two classes of strategies to mitigate flooding have been developed. The first is based on system design and engineering, which is often accompanied by significant parasitic power loss. The second class is based on membrane electrode assembly (MEA) design and engineering, and involves modifying the material and structural properties of the gas diffusion layer (GDL), cathode catalyst layer (CCL) and membrane to function in the presence of liquid water. In this review, several insightful directions are also suggested for future investigation.     

A novel method for preparing proton exchange membrane fuel cell electrodes by the ultrasonic-spray technique

A novel ultrasonic-spray method for preparing gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is described. Platinum (Pt) loaded on Nafion^®-bonded GDEs were prepared by the ultrasonic-spray method on various commercial woven and non-woven gas diffusion layers (GDLs) at several Pt loadings in the range of 0.40-0.05 mg cm⁻². The ultrasonic-sprayed GDEs were tested and compared to commercial and hand-painted GDEs. It was found that the GDEs prepared by the ultrasonic-spray method exhibited better performances compared to those prepared by the hand-painting technique, especially at low Pt loadings. GDEs fabricated by the ultrasonic-spray method with a platinum loading of 0.05 mg cm⁻² exhibited a peak power rating of 10.9 W mg⁻¹ compared to 9.8 W mg⁻¹ for hand-painted GDEs. For all experiments using various GDLs, Sigracet SGL 10BC exhibited the best performance with a peak power of 0.695 W cm⁻².     

XPS investigations of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell active layers aging: Characterization of the mitigating role of an anodic CO contamination on cathode degradation

This paper presents new results from XPS quantitative characterizations of cathode catalyst layers aged in a PEMFC with an anode operated under pure hydrogen and air and with 5 ppm CO contaminated hydrogen. Both oxygen rich and oxygen poor zones of the cathode catalyst layer were analyzed in order to show up heterogeneous degradation linked with gas distribution. The detailed chemical XPS analysis of the aged samples demonstrates in particular that in our operating conditions, the catalyst layer aging is mainly attributed to the oxidation of the carbon catalyst-support. A loss of the Nafion^® ionomer in the cathode is also highlighted by XPS. Furthermore, the characterization of the cathodic catalyst layer chemical composition when CO is introduced in the anode side shows that the catalyst layer degradation is lower. These results are in agreement with the experimental-modeling work by Franco et al. [1] demonstrating that anodic CO contamination decreases the reverse proton pumping effect between the cathode and the anode and enhances the PEMFC durability.     

Liquid water breakthrough pressure through gas diffusion layer of proton exchange membrane fuel cell

The dynamic behavior of liquid water transport through the gas diffusion layer (GDL) of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell is studied with an ex-situ approach. The liquid water breakthrough pressure is measured in the region between the capillary fingering and the stable displacement on the drainage phase diagram. The variables studied are GDL thickness, PTFE/Nafion content within the GDL, GDL compression, the inclusion of a micro-porous layer (MPL), and different water flow rates through the GDL. The liquid water breakthrough pressure is observed to increase with GDL thickness, GDL compression, and inclusion of the MPL. Furthermore, it has been observed that applying some amount of PTFE to an untreated GDL increases the breakthrough pressure but increasing the amount of PTFE content within the GDL shows minimal impact on the breakthrough pressure. For instance, the mean breakthrough pressures that have been measured for TGP-060 and for untreated (0 wt.% PTFE), 10 wt.% PTFE, and 27 wt.% PTFE were 3589 Pa, 5108 Pa, and 5284 Pa, respectively.     

Pore network modeling of cathode catalyst layer of proton exchange membrane fuel cell

In this paper, a pore network model is developed to investigate the coupled transport and reaction processes in the cathode catalyst layer (CCL) of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The developed model is validated by comparing the predicted polarization curve with the experimental data, and the parametric studies are carried out to elucidate the effects of CCL design parameters. With the decrease of the CCL thickness and the Nafion content, the cell voltage reduces at the low current density but increases when the current density is higher. The cell performance is also improved by increasing the proton conductivity of the Nafion film in the CCL. As compared to the CCL of uniformly distributed Nafion, the CCL with the Nafion volume decreasing along the thickness direction exhibits better performance at the high current density.     

Coupled mechanical stress and multi-dimensional CFD analysis for high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFCs)

We use a combined finite element method (FEM)/computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methodology to numerically investigate the effects of gas diffusion layer (GDL) compression/intrusion on the performance of a phosphoric acid-doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membrane-based high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC). Three-dimensional (3-D) FEM simulations are conducted under various displacement clamping conditions to analyze cell deformation characteristics. Then, a multi-dimensional HT-PEMFC CFD model is applied to the deformed cell geometries to study transport and electrochemical processes during HT-PEMFC operations. Our numerical simulation results reveal that the maximum stresses in the deformed GDLs always occur near the edge of the ribs. The combined effects of GDL compression/intrusion considerably increase spatial non-uniformity in the species and current density distributions, and reduce cell performance.     

Measurement of the water transport rate in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell and the influence of the gas diffusion layer

Water management in a PEM fuel cell significantly affects the fuel cell performance and durability. The gas diffusion layer (GDL) of a PEM fuel cell plays a critical role in the water management process. In this short communication, we report a simple method to measure the water transport rate across the GDL. Water rejection rates across a GDL at different cathode air-flow rates were measured. Based on the measurement results, the fuel cell operating conditions, such as current density, temperature, air stoichiometry and relative humidity, corresponding to membrane drying and flooding conditions were identified for the particular GDL used. This method can help researchers develop GDLs for a particular fuel cell design with specific operating conditions and optimize the operation conditions for the given PEM fuel cell components.     

In-plane gas permeability of proton exchange membrane fuel cell gas diffusion layers

A new analytical approach is proposed for evaluating the in-plane permeability of gas diffusion layers (GDLs) of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. In this approach, the microstructure of carbon papers is modeled as a combination of equally-sized, equally-spaced fibers parallel and perpendicular to the flow direction. The permeability of the carbon paper is then estimated by a blend of the permeability of the two groups. Several blending techniques are investigated to find an optimum blend through comparisons with experimental data for GDLs. The proposed model captures the trends of experimental data over the entire range of GDL porosity. In addition, a compact relationship is reported that predicts the in-plane permeability of GDL as a function of porosity and the fiber diameter. A blending technique is also successfully adopted to report a closed-form relationship for in-plane permeability of three-directional fibrous materials.     

Nonlinear multivariable modeling of locomotive proton exchange membrane fuel cell system

A nonlinear multivariable model of a locomotive proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system based on a support vector regression (SVR) is proposed to study the effect of different operating conditions on dynamic behavior of a locomotive PEMFC power unit. Furthermore, an effective informed adaptive particle swarm optimization (EIA-PSO) algorithm which is an adaptive swarm intelligence optimization with preferable search ability and search rate is utilized to tune the hyper-parameters of the SVR model for the improvement of model performance. The comparisons with the experimental data demonstrate that the SVR model based on EIA-PSO can efficiently approximate the dynamic behaviors of locomotive PEMFC power unit and is capable of predicting dynamic performance in terms of the output voltage and power with a high accuracy.     

质子交换膜燃料电池故障检测研究

针对质子交换膜燃料电池(PEMFC)发电系统的故障检测和系统稳定性问题,结合其多传感器特性,采用基于实时PCA的质子交换膜燃料电池故障检测方法,根据燃料电池反应信号数据建立PCA模型,通过窗口过滤方式和遗忘因子算法实时更新模型,并将降维后获得的数据用统计方法进行处理,从而检测出故障。有效地简化了燃料电池系统故障检测的过程,改善了故障检测的实时性,提高了燃料电池系统工作的稳定性和可靠性。     

The effect of materials on proton exchange membrane fuel cell electrode performance

This paper describes the optimisation in the fabrication materials and techniques used in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) electrodes. The effect on the performance of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) from the solvents used in producing catalyst inks is reported. Comparison in MEA performances between various gas diffusion layers (GDLs) and the importance of microporous layers (MPLs) in gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) are also shown. It was found that the best performances were achieved for GDEs using tetrahydrofuran (THF) as the solvent in the catalyst ink formulation and Sigracet 10BC as the GDL. The results also showed that our in-house painted GDEs were comparable to commercial ones (using Johnson Matthey HiSpec™ and E-TEK catalysts).     

Enhancement of proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance by titanium-coated anode gas diffusion layer

Titanium was coated onto an anode gas diffusion layer (GDL) by direct current sputtering to improve the performance and durability of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that the GDLs were thoroughly coated with titanium, which showed angular protrusion. Single-cell performance of the PEMFCs with titanium-coated GDLs as anodes was investigated at operating temperatures of 25 °C, 45 °C, and 65 °C. Cell performances of all membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) with titanium-coated GDLs were superior to that of the MEA without titanium coating. The MEA with titanium-coated GDL, with 10 min sputtering time, demonstrated the best performance at 25 °C, 45 °C, and 65 °C with corresponding power densities 58.26%, 32.10%, and 37.45% higher than that of MEA without titanium coating.     

Optimization of cathode microporous layer materials for proton exchange membrane fuel cell

The microporous layer (MPL) of diffusion medium has an important impact on the water management ability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. In this study, six kinds of carbon black were used to prepare the cathode MPL. The thickness, conductivity, pore structure, hydrophobicity, and surface microstructure of MPL were characterized. The single cell was prepared and electrochemical tests were performed. The results showed that the single cell prepared by Acetylene black (ACET) and Vulcan XC-72R has a considerable power generation performance. In addition, polyvinylidene fluoride hexafluoropropylene copolymer P(VDF-HFP) was used to replace Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as hydrophobic binder. MPL with different P(VDF-HFP) contents were prepared, and the single cell performance was investigated. The results showed that all the single cells prepared by P(VDF-HFP) were worse than that of PTFE. This study provides an important reference for further improving the performance of fuel cells from the perspective of material optimization with MPL.     

Highly efficient single-layer gas diffusion layers for the proton exchange membrane fuel cell

In the present study, a series of highly efficient single-layer gas diffusion layers (SL-GDLs) was successfully prepared by the addition of a vapor grown carbon nanofiber (VGCF) in the carbon black/poly(tetrafluoroethylene) composite-based SL-GDL through a simple and inexpensive process. The scanning electron micrographs of the as-prepared VGCF-containing SL-GDLs (SL-GDL-CFs) showed that the GDLs had a microporous layer (MPL)-like structure, while the wire-like VGCFs were well dispersed and crossed among the carbon black particles in the SL-GDL matrix. Utilization of the SL-GDL-CFs for MEA fabrication was also done by direct coating with the catalyst layer. Due to the presence of VGCFs, the properties of the SL-GDL-CFs, including electronic resistivity, mechanical characteristic, gas permeability, and water repellency, varied with the VGCF content, with the overall effect beneficial to the performance of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The best performances obtained from the PEMFC with VGCFs at 15 wt.% was approximately 63% higher than those without VGCFs, and about 85% as efficient as ELAT GDL, a commercial dual-layer GDL, for both the H₂/O₂ and H₂/air systems.     

Preparation of microporous layer for proton exchange membrane fuel cell by using polyvinylpyrrolidone aqueous solution

A new method of preparing microporous layer (MPL) for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was presented in this paper. Considering the bad dispersion of PTFE aqueous suspension in the carbon slurry based on ethanol, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) aqueous solution was used to prepare carbon slurry for microporous layer. The prepared gas diffusion layers (GDLs) were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, contact angle system and pore size distribution analyzer. It was found that the GDL prepared with PVP aqueous solution had higher gas permeability, as well as more homogeneous hydrophobicity. Moreover, the prepared GDLs were used in the cathode of fuel cell and evaluated with fuel cell performance and EIS analysis, and the GDL prepared with PVP aqueous solution indicated better fuel cell performance and lower ohmic resistance and mass transfer resistance.     

Dynamic modeling and simulation of air-breathing proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Small fuel cells have shown excellent potential as alternative energy sources for portable applications. One of the most promising fuel cell technologies for portable applications is air-breathing fuel cells. In this paper, a dynamic model of an air-breathing PEM fuel cell (AB-PEMFC) system is presented. The analytical modeling and simulation of the air-breathing PEM fuel cell system are verified using Matlab, Simulink and SimPowerSystems Blockset. To show the effectiveness of the proposed AB-PEMFC model, two case studies are carried out using the Matlab software package. In the first case study, the dynamic behavior of the proposed AB-PEMFC system is compared with that of a planar air-breathing PEM fuel cell model. In the second case study, the validation of the air-breathing PEM fuel cell-based power source is carried out for the portable application. Test results show that the proposed AB-PEMFC system can be considered as a viable alternative energy sources for portable applications.     

Optimization of the amount of Nafion in multi-walled carbon nanotube/Nafion composites as Pt supports in gas diffusion electrodes for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

The Nafion loading in multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) composites with Nafion used as Pt support in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has been studied. We varied the amount of Nafion in these composites and added a Pt loading of 0.3 mg cm⁻² to the catalyst layer. The performance of these electrodes in the ORR was measured with linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), chronoamperometry, inductive coupled plasma (ICP), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, we compared the performance of the MWCNTs as Pt supports with those of the composites. Our results indicate that the composites are better Pt supports in comparison with MWCNT.     

质子交换膜燃料电池的多尺度传热传质

介绍了目前质子交换膜燃料电池(PEMFC)在膜、电极、单电池、电堆或系统等四个结构尺度上的传热传质过程研究;主要讨论了PEMFC内的多组分传输、膜内水管理和多孔电极内的传热、传质过程;认为建立在孔尺度水平的研究方法是深入探讨电池内多孔材料微结构传热传质的有效途径;多维、多尺度模型的建立及其模拟计算能准确反映PEMFC内部的传递过程机理,为进一步优化电池结构和操作条件提供有价值的参考。