NEW CONCEPTUAL GAS DISTRIBUTOR WITH MASS TRANSFER ENHANCING FUNCTION IN POLYMER ELECTROLYTE FUEL CELLS

P. W. Li, S. P. Chen, M. K. Chyu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

A new conceptual structure of the gas distributors in polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFC) or proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells is developed in this work. Basically, instead of partitioned channels and noninterrupted walls, the proposed new gas distributors make use of discretized elements as the current collector in the flow fields, which can help to enhance the mass transfer in the gas flow fields while maintaining the function of transmitting current out of the fuel cell. Experimental operation without external humidification of the reactant gases for single PEM fuel cells and cell stacks using conventional and the currently presented gas distributors were conducted for comparison and verification. It was found that the maximum operational cell current, beyond which there is a sharp drop of the cell voltage, could be significantly improved when using the currently proposed gas distributors and the same membrane-electrode-assembly (MEA) sheets. Correspondingly, the output electrical power can have at least 11 percent increment for the operation with free-convective airflow and around 50 percent increment for the operation with forced convective airflow.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationASME 2004 2nd International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology, FUELCELL 2004
PublisherAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Pages561-565
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)0791841650, 9780791841655
DOIs
StatePublished - 2004
Externally publishedYes
EventASME 2004 2nd International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology, FUELCELL 2004 - Rochester, United States
Duration: Jun 14 2004Jun 16 2004

Publication series

NameASME 2004 2nd International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology, FUELCELL 2004

Conference

ConferenceASME 2004 2nd International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology, FUELCELL 2004
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityRochester
Period6/14/046/16/04

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Fuel Technology
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

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