Injection moulded composite bipolar plates for a portable hydrogen fuel cell charger

Abstract

Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that convert the chemical energy of a reactants directly into electricity and heat with high efficiency. Proton Exchange Membrane or Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cells are one of the most common type of fuel cells. In a convection PEM fuel cell, the oxygen from air is introduced to the cathode and hydrogen is introduced to anode. Between the anode and cathode electrodes is sandwiched the polymer electrolyte membrane. The hydrogen molecules break apart into protons and electrons due to the reaction helped by catalysts. The protons travel through the membrane to the cathode and electrons travel to an external circuit. At cathode side the protons, electrons and oxygen molecules combine to form water. Research work was directed to the study of hydrogen fuel cell power systems for portable applications. Last decade the industry developed portable power systems based on hydrogen fuel cell, mobile telephone chargers, vehicles energy supply. In this paper are presented the experiments with a hydrogen fuel cell stack in which were assembled resin filled graphite bipolar plates and then injection moulded polymeric conductive composite bipolar plates and results were compared concluding that injection moulded bipolar plates could represent an attractive alternative in building efficient fuel cell portable power systems.