Polymer electrolyte fuel cell operating with nickel foam-based gas diffusion layers: A numerical investigation

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy
• Main Authors: Ercelik, Mustafa, Ismail, Mohammed S., Hughes, Kevin J., Ingham, Derek B., Ma, Lin, Pourkashanian, Mohamed
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2024
• Subjects: Flow channel design; Gas diffusion layer; Nickel foam; Numerical modelling; Polymer electrolyte fuel cell; Rib and channel dimensional optimisation; Flow channel design; Rib and channel dimensional optimisation; Gas diffusion layer; Nickel foam; Numerical modelling; Polymer electrolyte fuel cell
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2024.05.084

Due to their outstanding structural, transport and electrical characteristics, nickel foams serve as excellent candidate materials for gas diffusion layers (GDLs) in polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs). In this work, a new three-dimensional PEFC model was developed to explore the local and global fuel cell performance with nickel foam-based GDLs. The fuel cell operating with nickel foam GDLs was shown to have, due to its superior mass and charge transport properties, higher oxygen and water concentration and current density compared to that operating with the conventional carbon fibre-based GDLs. The results show that the pumping power should be taken into account when optimising the dimensions of the flow channels and as such the net power density must be the criterion for optimisation. The optimal dimensions of the flow channels for the fuel cell operating with nickel foam based GDLs were found to be 0.25 mm for the channel height and 1 mm for the channel width; the maximum net power density with these dimensions was around 0.95 W/cm2 which is two times higher than that operating with carbon fibre based GDLs. All the results have been presented and critically discussed. •Nickel foam GDLs demonstrate more uniform concentration and current distributions.•Smaller channels boost the fuel cell performance but demand more pumping power.•Net power output of nickel foam-based PEFC nearly doubles that of carbon-based PEFC.•The performance gain with nickel foam GDL was investigated numerically.