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Abstract
Since the heat transfer characteristics in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC) influences its power generation performance, this study clarifies the temperature characteristics to in-plane direction in single PEFC. In addition, since we expect the heat and mass transfer as well as power generation characteristic are enhanced by decreasing PEM and GDL’s thicknesses, it is effective to investigate the impact of components thickness on them under high temperature operation. This study aims to clarify how to influence PEM and GDL’s thicknesses on not only heat and mass transfer characteristics but also power generation characteristic under high temperature, e.g., 90 °. The present study measured temperature distributions to in-plane direction on cathode separator back of cell by thermograph with power generation changing initial operation temperature as well as relative humidity of inflow gases. As a result, the increase in generated power and the even temperature distribution were obtained due to the decrease in GDL’s thickness. Since the moisture transfer was promoted with decreasing the thickness of PEM, the power generation performance was improved. It was clarified that the impact of GDL’s thickness was larger than that of PEM’s thickness.
Highlights
Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC) is generally operated using polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) such as Nafion at the temperature from 60 °C to 80 °C [1, 2]
If we can operate PEFC under higher temperature condition, the merits can be believed as follows: (1) electrochemical kinetics are enhanced for anode and cathode electrodes; (2) the cooling stack system can be downsized by utilizing the larger temperature gap between stack of PEFC and coolant; (3) the tolerability of CO is improved and the lower quality reformed hydrogen can be available [4]
The present study focuses on the temperature distribution to in-plane direction in a cell of PEFC since PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) is decomposed thermally by local hot spot and PEM is destroyed due to thermal stress caused by non-uniform temperature distribution [5, 6]
Summary
PEFC (formally, it is Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell) is generally operated using polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) such as Nafion at the temperature from 60 °C to 80 °C [1, 2]. It is known that thermocouple is used for temperature measurement, thermocouple influences the power generation as well as accuracy of measured temperature remarkably because of gases leakage [8, 9]. From this consideration, a thermograph is promising temperature measurement way under the power generation condition with more accuracy and non-disturbance of temperature and mass distribution since it can measure by a non-contract and in-situ procedure. There was no study revealing the temperature distribution at high temperature over 80 °C, except the research carried out by the authors [12, 13]
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