High Current Density Operation of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell with Varying Inlet Relative Humidity—A Modeling Study

Wei Liu, Anders Christian Olesen, Vincenzo Liso and Torsten Berning ()
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Wei Liu: Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
Anders Christian Olesen: Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
Vincenzo Liso: Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
Torsten Berning: Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 16, 1-17

Abstract: This paper focuses on proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) operation at current densities in the order of 6 A/cm 2 . Such high current densities are conceivable when the traditional carbon fiber papers are replaced with perforated metal plates as the gas diffusion layer to enhance waste heat removal, and at the same time the relative humidity inside the fuel cell is kept below 100% by applying appropriate operating conditions as was found in previous one-dimensional modeling work. In the current paper, we applied a three-dimensional, multi-phase computational fluid dynamics model based on Ansys-CFX to obtain additional insight into the underlying physics. The calculated pressure drops are in very good agreement with previous one-dimensional modeling work, and the current densities in all case studies are in the order of 5–6 A/cm 2 , but different from the previous one-dimensional study, the results suggest that the relative humidity is very close to 100% throughout the entire channel length when the inlet relative humidity is 100%, ensuring best hydration cell conditions and hence best performance. Importantly, the model results suggest that fuel cell performance at a high current density in conjunction with relatively low stoichiometric flow ratios around 1.5–2 is possible.

Keywords: PEMFC; high current density; CFD; CFX (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: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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