A Review on the Numerical Studies on the Performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) Flow Channel Designs for Automotive Applications

Suprava Chakraborty, Devaraj Elangovan, Karthikeyan Palaniswamy, Ashley Fly, Dineshkumar Ravi, Denis Ashok Sathia Seelan and Thundil Karuppa Raj Rajagopal ()
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Suprava Chakraborty: TIFAC-CORE, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India
Devaraj Elangovan: TIFAC-CORE, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India
Karthikeyan Palaniswamy: Department of Automobile Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore 641004, India
Ashley Fly: Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK
Dineshkumar Ravi: Department of Automotive Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India
Denis Ashok Sathia Seelan: Department of Automotive Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India
Thundil Karuppa Raj Rajagopal: Department of Automotive Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore 632014, India

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 24, 1-21

Abstract: Climate change and the major threat it poses to the environment and human lives is the major challenge the world faces today. To overcome this challenge, it is recommended that future automobiles have zero carbon exhaust emissions. Even though battery electric vehicles reduce carbon emissions relative to combustion engines, a carbon footprint still remains in the overall ecosystem unless the battery is powered by renewable energy sources. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is an alternate source for automotive mobility which, similar to battery electric vehicles, has zero carbon emissions from its exhaust pipe. Moreover, the typical system level efficiency of a PEMFC is higher than an equivalent internal combustion powertrain. This review article covers the background history, working principles, challenges and applications of PEMFCs for automotive transportation and power generation in industries. Since the performance of a PEMFC is greatly influenced by the design of the anode and cathode flow channels, an in-depth review has been carried out on different types of flow channel designs. This review reveals the importance of flow channel design with respect to uniform gas (reactant) distribution, membrane proton conductivity, water flooding and thermal management. An exhaustive study has been carried out on different types of flow channels, such as parallel, serpentine, interdigitated and bio-inspired, with respect to their performance and applications.

Keywords: proton exchange membrane fuel cell; computational fluid dynamics; flow field channels; bio-inspired; serpentine (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: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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