Effect of temperature and water content on the performance of PEM fuel cell

Abstract

A fuel cell is a promising energy conversion system that will eventually become the first-choice for producing power because of its clean or zero-emission nature. A steady-state, two-dimensional mathematical model with a complete set of governing equations valid in different components of a PEM fuel cell was developed to illustrate the temperature and water content effects on proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell performance. This model considers the transport of species and water along the porous media: gas diffusion layers (GDL) anode and cathode, and the membrane of PEMFC fuel cell. To improve the kinetics of electrochemical reactions at the electrodes and thus reduce the activation overvoltage: increase the gas diffusion electrodes reduce the drop ohmic, especially in the proton conductive membrane through an increase in ionic conductivity. The electrochemical performance of a fuel cell will be strongly depend temperature and water content.