Article
Effect of the Gas Diffusion Layer Design on the Water Management and Cell Performance of a PEM Fuel Cell
Author/s | Martín-Alcántara, Antonio
González Morán, Laura Pino Lucena, Francisco Javier Guerra Macho, José Julio Iranzo Paricio, José Alfredo |
Department | Universidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Ingeniería Energética |
Publication Date | 2022-07 |
Deposit Date | 2023-02-10 |
Abstract | The influence of the different properties of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) on the operation of a liquid-cooled, proton-exchange polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEMFC) has been studied in this work. Three-dimensional numerical ... The influence of the different properties of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) on the operation of a liquid-cooled, proton-exchange polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEMFC) has been studied in this work. Three-dimensional numerical simulations (CFD) have been conducted to compare several commercial GDLs with different properties, analyzing their influence on the cell performance. Specifically, four GDLs (AvCarb P-75, SIGRACET 34BC, SIGRACET 34BA and Toray TGP-H-090) have been studied, two of them including a microporous layer (MPL). The effect of the MPL has been inspected by contrast of the results obtained with the same GDL, with or without MPL. Potentiostatic boundary conditions have been applied, varying the electric potential between 1.05 and 0.35 V to obtain a representative i−V curve with enough resolution. Detailed postprocessing tasks were carried out to gain a deeper understanding on the phenomena occurring within the cell for each GDL. It can be concluded from this work that a high electrical conductivity and a high permeability lead to a better fuel cell performance. On the other hand, although the presence of MPL provides lower permeability leading to a worse overall performance, it has been shown that the lack of it may result in membrane dehydration and cell degradation issues. |
Funding agencies | S.G. de Universidades, Investigación y Tecnología Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICIN). España Agencia Estatal de Investigación. España |
Project ID. | PY20 RE 026 AICIA
PID2019–104441RBI00 |
Files | Size | Format | View | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Martín Alcántara_2022_Processes_ ... | 1.738Mb | [PDF] | View/ | |