Modeling and Experimental Investigation of the Anode Inlet Relative Humidity Effect on a PEM Fuel Cell

Lu Zhang, Yongfeng Liu, Guijun Bi, Xintong Liu, Long Wang, Yuan Wan and Hua Sun
Additional contact information
Lu Zhang: School of Mechanical-Electronic and Vehicle Engineering, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing 100044, China
Yongfeng Liu: School of Mechanical-Electronic and Vehicle Engineering, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing 100044, China
Guijun Bi: Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), 73 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637662, Singapore
Xintong Liu: School of Mechanical-Electronic and Vehicle Engineering, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing 100044, China
Long Wang: School of Mechanical-Electronic and Vehicle Engineering, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing 100044, China
Yuan Wan: School of Mechanical-Electronic and Vehicle Engineering, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing 100044, China
Hua Sun: School of Humanities, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing 100044, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 13, 1-20

Abstract: External humidification has been used as a flexible water management strategy for the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). To study the anode inlet relative humidity (ARH) effect on the performance of PEMFC, the anode inlet water content (AIWC) model is established, including condensation rates and water activity. A comparable analysis between the AIWC model, Fluent model and experiment is conducted at 60 °C operating temperature, four different anode relative humidities (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%), and 100% cathode relative humidity (CRH). The species distributions of water content and hydrogen concentration are presented and analyzed. The results show the relative error of the voltage results derived from the AIWC model has been reduced by 3.2% (the original is 4.6% in the Fluent model) especially at 240 mA·cm −2 for 50% ARH. An increase in hydrogen humidity can improve the PEMFC output at low ARH (25% and 50%). Meanwhile, at high ARH (100%), the excess water produced does not play a positive role. At 50% ARH, the water content and hydrogen distribution are more uniform all over the anode channels.

Keywords: PEMFC; relative humidity; condensation rate; inlet water content; species distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/13/4532/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/13/4532/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:13:p:4532-:d:844193

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().