Numerical investigation of hydrogen consumption in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13171/mjc7618121415yaAbstract
Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is the most important system that converts chemical energy into electricity by using hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction reactions. With this approach, a 3-D (CFD) thermo-fluid model was studied using a commercial code ANSYS fluent for investigating the performance of the PEMFC system. The developed model can evaluate the distribution of gas species like the mass fraction of hydrogen, as well as the distribution of water in PEMFC. The results are used to investigate the influence of temperature and cell voltage on the consumption of hydrogen from inlet z= 0mm to outlet z=50 mm. The obtained polarization curve I-V is compared with the literature findings. The analysis shows a good agreement between our findings and the experimental results. The CFD simulation shows that the cell voltage affects considerably the hydrogen consumption; at 333 K, it can be seen that the hydrogen mass fraction decreases from 80% to 67% at 0.7 V and 80% to 73 % at 0.9 V. By comparing the hydrogen mass fractions; at a low cell voltage the hydrogen mass fraction dropped by only 7%, while at a high cell voltage the hydrogen mass fraction dropped by about 13% from the inlet to outlet. Consequently; our analyses show high consumption of hydrogen at low cell voltages.References
- J. Brouwer, On the role of fuel cells and hydrogen in a more sustainable and renewable energy future, Current Applied Physics, 2010, 10, 9-17.
- J. Wang, H. Wang, Y. Fan, Techno-economic challenges of Fuel Cell Commercialization, Engineering, 2018, 4, 352-360.
- M. Reza Kazemi, I. Heydari, Z. Zhang, Hybrid systems: combining membrane and absorption technologies leads to more efficient acid gases (CO2 and H2S) removal from natural gas, Journal of CO2 utilization, 2017, 18, 362-369.
- D.O. Akinyele, R.K. Rayudu, Review of energy storage technologies to sustain power networks, Sustainable Energy Assess, 2014, 8, 74-91.
- J.Y. Wang, Barriers of scalling-up fuel cells: cost, durability and reliability, Energy, 2015, 80, 509-521.
- M. Al-Baghdadi, H. Al-Janabi, Modeling optimizes PEM fuel cell performance using three-dimensional multi-phase computational fluid dynamics model, Energy Convers. Manage, 2007, 48, 3102-3119.
- J.H. Lin, W.H. Chen, Y.J. Su, T.H. Ko, Effect of gas diffusion layer compression on the performance in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, Fuel, 2008, 87, 2420-2424.
- I. Tolj, M. Lototskyy, M. Davids, S. Pasupathi, G. Swart, B. Pollet, Fuel cell-battery hybrid powered light electric vehicle (golf cart): Influence of fuel cell on the driving performance, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2013, 38, 10630-10639.
- J. T. Hinatsu, M. Faulkner, H. Takenaka, water uptake of perfluoro sulfonic acid membranes from liquid water and water vapour, Journal of the electrochemical society, 1994, 141, 1493-1498.
- E. Ozden, I. Tari, Proton exchange membrane fuel cell degradation: A parametric analysis using Computational Fluid Dynamics, J. Power Sources, 2016, 304, 64-73.
- H. F. Hashemi, S. Rowshanzamir, M. Reza Kazemi, CFD simulation of PEM fuel cell performance: effect of straight and serpentine flow fields, Math Comput Model, 2012, 55, 1540-1557.
- H. Mahayri, H. Hassanzadeh, M.S Afrouzi, Three-dimensional transient multiphase flow simulation in a dead end anode polymer electrolyte fuel cell, Journal of molecular liquids, 2017, 225, 391-405.
- H. K. Esfeh, A. Azarafza, M. K. A. Hamid, On the computational fluid dynamics of PEM fuel cells (PEMFCs): an investigation on mesh independence analysis, RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 32893-32902.
- E. Hontañón, M.J. Escudero, C. Bautista, P.L.
García-Ybarra, L. Daza, Optimisation of flowfield in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells using computational fluid dynamics techniques, Journal of Power Sources, 2000, 86, 363-368.
- W. Ying, M. Ouyang, Three-dimensional Heat and Mass transfer analysis in an air-breathing proton exchange membrane fuel cell, Journal of Power Source, 2007, 164, 721-729.
- H. Zhang, P. Pei, X. Yuan, The conception of the in-plate adverse-flow field for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, Int. J. Hydrog. Energy, 2010, 35, 9124-9133
- Inc. ANSYS FLUENT 12.0 fuel cells module manual, April 2009.
- T.E. Springer, T.A. Zawodzinski, S. Gottesfeld, Polymer electrolyte fuel cell model, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 1991, 138, 2334-2342.
- L. Wang, A. Husar, T. Zhou, H. Liu, A parametric study of PEM fuel cell performances, Int. J. Hydrog. Energy, 2003, 28, 1263-1272.
- A. Arvay, A. Ahmed, X.H. Peng, A.M. Kannan, Convergence criteria establishment for 3D simulation of proton exchange membrane fuel cell, Int. J. Hydrog. Energy, 2012, 37, 2482-2489.
- C.M. Baca, R. Travis, M. Bang, Three-dimensional, single-phase, non-isothermal CFD model of a PEM fuel cell, J. Power Sources, 2008, 178, 269-281.
- P. K. Takallo, E. S. Nia, M. Ghazi khan, Numerical and experimental investigation on effects of inlet humidity and fuel flow rate and oxidant on the performance on polymer fuel cell, Energy Conversion and Management, 2016, 114, 290-302.
- A. Awan, M. Saleem, A. Basit, Simulation of proton exchange membrane fuel cell by using ANSYS Fluent, IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng, 414, 2018, 1-10.
- A. Iranzo, M. Muñoz, J. Pino, F. Rosa, Update on a numerical model for the performance prediction of a PEM fuel cell, Int. J. Hydrog.
Energy, 2011, 36, 9123–9127.
- T. Berning, N. Djilali, Three-dimensional computational analyses of transport phenomena in a PEM fuel cell, Journal of Power source, 2002, 106, 284-294.
- D.G. Sanchez, T. Ruiu, I. Biswas, K. A. Friedrich, J. S. Monreal, M. Vera, Effect of the inlet gas Humidification on PEMFC Behavior and Current Density Distribution, ECS Trans., 2014, 64, 603-617.
- T. V. Nguyen, R. E. White, A water and thermal management model for proton exchange membrane fuel cells, Journal of Electrochemical society, 1993,140, 2178-2186.
- J. Zhang, Y. Tang, C. Song, Z. Xia, H. Li, H. Wang, J. Zhang, PEM fuel cell relative humidity(RH) and its effect on performance at high temperatures, Electrochimica Acta, 2008, 53, 5315-5321.
- Y. Amadane, H. Mounir, A. El Marjani , Modeling the Temperature Effect on PEM fuel cell performance, ICTEA , Vol 2018 (2018), 2018, 1-3.
- E . Misran, N.S.M. Hassan, W.R.W. Daud, E.H. Majlan, M.I. Rosli, Water transport characteristics of a PEM fuel cell at various operating pressure and temperatures, Int. J. Hydorg. Energy, 2013, 38, 9401-9408.
- M. Ji, Z. Wei , A review of water management in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells, energies, 2009, 2, 1057-1106.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
