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An experimental and numerical study of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC)
is presented and compared with the experimental data to investigate the effects of pressure gradient,
flow rate, humidification and supplied oxidant type for the practical application. The membrane and
electrolyte assembly (MEA) materials are implemented by double-tied catalyst layers. A single-phase
two-dimensional steady-state model is is implemented for the numerical analysis. Testing condition is
fixed at 60sccm and 70°C in anode and cathode, respectively. It is found that the performance of
PEMFC depend highly on the conditions as gas pressure, temperature, thickness, supplied oxidant
type (Oxygen/Air) as well as humidification. The results show that the humidification effect enhances
the performance more than 20% and the pure oxygen gas as fuel improves current density more than
25% compared to ambient air suppliance as oxidant.
Fuel cells are electrochemical devices which convert the energy of a chemical reaction directly into
electricity, with heat as a by-product. It is presented and compared with the experimental data to
investigate the effect of humidifying and Air/oxidant in the PEMFC model [1,2]. These features mean
that fuel cells are attractive for a range of potential applications, including combined heat and power,
distributed power generation and transport. In the longer term, fuel cells may also be used for large
scale power generation, probably in combination with gas turbines
In a PEM fuel cell, fuel (e.g., hydrogen gas) and an oxidant (e.g., oxygen gas from the air or from the
gas tank) are used to generate electricity, while heat and water are by-products of the fuel cell
operation. A fuel cell typically works on the following principle: as the hydrogen gas flows into the
anode side on the fuel cell, a platinum catalyst facilitates oxidation of the hydrogen gas which
produces protons (hydrogen ions) and electrons [3,4,5]. In addition, the simulation is implemented
under the ambient STP condition. This section is aimed at dependent variable change such as flow
rate, pressure, temperature active layer thickness. The flow direction of the proposed model is given
in Fig. 1(a). As shown in Fig. 1(b), the region of the lower left side is inlet of hydrogen, the remainder
is exhausted through the upper left side that of the upper right side is inlet of oxidant such as oxygen
and air, the remnant is exhausted into the upper right side as the same way. In order to simulate the
behavior of PEMFC, current balance, mass balance, and momentum balance are implemented in this
model. The potential distribution is modeled in three subdomains, which are given by following
equations.
Materials Science Forum Vols. 620-622 (2009) pp 77-80
online at http://www.scientific.net
© (2009) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
Online available since 2009/Apr/28
All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the
publisher: Trans Tech Publications Ltd, Switzerland, www.ttp.net. (ID: 138.25.2.22-29/04/09,11:22:24)