Effect of Bipolar Plate Material on Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Performance

Tabbi Wilberforce, Oluwatosin Ijaodola, Ahmad Baroutaji, Emmanuel Ogungbemi and Abdul Ghani Olabi
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Tabbi Wilberforce: Mechanical Engineering and Design, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK
Oluwatosin Ijaodola: Institute of Engineering and Energy Technologies, University of the West of Scotland, Glasgow G72 0LH, UK
Ahmad Baroutaji: School of Engineering, Telford Innovation Campus, University of Wolverhampton, Telford TF2 9NT, UK
Emmanuel Ogungbemi: Institute of Engineering and Energy Technologies, University of the West of Scotland, Glasgow G72 0LH, UK
Abdul Ghani Olabi: Mechanical Engineering and Design, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 5, 1-15

Abstract: Commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells can only materials provided its performance is closely related to existing technologies useful in commercial application. Other critical parameters like the utilization of cheaper materials should be taken into account during the manufacturing of the cell. A key component in the cell that has direct correlation to the cell performance is the flow plate. The weight coupled with cost of the cell revolves around the flow plate used in the manufacturing of the cell. This study explores materials ideal for the manufacturing of fuel cells in order to improve the overall cell performance. The investigation highlights the critical impact of varying materials used in the manufacturing of flow plates for PEM fuel cells. Stainless steel (SS), aluminium (Al) and copper (Cu) were the materials considered. The flow plate designs considered were serpentine and open pore cellular foam channel. Machine learning using python for the validation of the results with Linear regression, Ridge regression and Polynomial regression algorithm was carried out. The performance of both flow field channels was compared using different bipolar plate materials. The results show that metal foam flow channels overall performance was better than serpentine flow channels with all the various bipolar plate material used and Al material outperformed Cu and SS material. There is a direct correlation in terms of the outcome of the study and literature based on the data generated experimentally. It can however be concluded that molecules of hydrogen are stable on aluminium plates compared to copper and stainless steel.

Keywords: bipolar plate material; fuel consumption; machine learning; fuel cell (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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