Current collector design for closed-plenum polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

Abstract

This work presents a non-isothermal, single-phase, three-dimensional model of the effects of current collector geometry in a 5 cm2 closed-plenum polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell constructed using printed circuit boards (PCBs). Two geometries were considered in this study: parallel slot and circular hole designs. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package was used to account for species, momentum, charge and membrane water distribution within the cell for each design. The model shows that the cell can reach high current densities in the range of 0.8 A cm−2–1.2 A cm−2 at 0.45 V for both designs. The results indicate that the transport phenomena are significantly governed by the flow field plate design. A sensitivity analysis on the channel opening ratio shows that the parallel slot design with a 50% opening ratio shows the most promising performance due to better species, heat and charge distribution. Modelling and experimental analysis confirm that flooding inhibits performance, but the risk can be minimised by reducing the relative humidity of the cathode feed to 50%. Moreover, overheating is a potential problem due to the insulating effect of the PCB base layer and as such strategies should be implemented to combat its adverse effects.