Performance enhancement of a high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell by bottomed-baffles in bipolar-plate channels

• Published in: Applied energy Vol. 255; p. 113815
• Main Authors: Perng, Shiang-Wuu, Wu, Horng-Wen, Chen, Yi-Bin, Zeng, Yi-Kai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2019
• Subjects: Bottomed-baffles; Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; High temperture proton exchange membrane fuel cell; Net HT-PEMFC power; Polarization performance; Three-dimensional HT-PEMFC model; Net HT-PEMFC power; High temperture proton exchange membrane fuel cell; Bottomed-baffles; Polarization performance; Three-dimensional HT-PEMFC model; Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
• ISSN: 0306-2619; 1872-9118
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.113815

•We enhance net HT-PEMFC power by bottomed-baffles in anode and cathode channels.•We compare polarization performance among rectangular ribs and bottomed-baffles.•We study how number of bottomed-baffles affects polarization curves of HT-PEMFC.•Bottomed-baffles in anode and cathode channels raise HT-PEMFC net power up to 8%.•We verify the numerical results by testing polarization performance and impedance. Since HT-PEMFCs (high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell) operate above 120 °C, it can vaporize the liquid water produced at cathode to simplify the water management system and has better tolerance of CO in the PBI (polybenzimidazole) membrane. This study utilized a three-dimensional numerical model to explore the cell performance of HT-PEMFCs (high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells) under the installation of various-numbers baffles on the bottom of the anode and cathode bipolar-plate channels by the SIMPLE-C algorithm. Furthermore, this study accounted for the pressure drop through the bipolar-plate channel to determine the net HT-PEMFC power. The numerical results display that the highest net HT-PEMFC power exists as the number of bottomed-baffle is five, and the net HT-PEMFC power for five bottomed-baffles is higher than that for without baffles by 8%. The present simulation is verified by the HT-PEMFC performance measured from the in-house experiment to show that the CFD results reasonably consist with the measured data of in-house experiments. In addition, the five bottomed-baffle channel has lower total impedance than smooth channel resulted from an electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) test.