Performance modelling of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Conference · Thu Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1998

OSTI ID:357750

Marr, C; Li, X ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Waterloo, Ontario (Canada). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

This paper presents a performance model of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell that has sufficient accuracy for engineering applications with reduced computational requirements. The model includes electrochemical reaction in the catalyst layers and formulation for electrical resistance in the membrane, electrodes and bipolar plates, and employs engineering correlation for the reactant gas transport in the flow channels and through the electrodes. It is shown that the present model predictions are in reasonable agreement with known experimental observations, indicating that the present model can be employed for fuel cell stack and system modeling. The effect of various operating and design parameters on the cell performance has been investigated. It is found that mass transport limitations are the largest cause of performance loss in the cell when graphite is used as the material for bipolar plates and electrodes. If conducting polymers are substituted as construction materials, cell performance is expected to suffer considerably at high current densities due to their reduced electrical conductivity.

• OSTI ID: 357750
• Report Number(s): CONF-980213--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
DESIGN
GRAPHITE
MASS TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
PERFORMANCE
SOLID ELECTROLYTE FUEL CELLS