Novel Flow Field for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells Made from 72%-Porous Aluminum Foam

Abstract

Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) has emerged as the most widely-used type among fuel cells, due to various advantages. Bipolar plates play a major role in the performance of PEMFC. Flow fields in the bipolar plates distribute fuel and oxidant over the reactive sites of the membrane electrode assembly. Bipolar plates are typically graphite with parallel or serpentine channels as flow fields. Graphite is heavy and has fabrication inaccuracy; it is also costly and brittle. In this paper, open-cell aluminium foam is experimentally investigated as a flow field for a new bipolar plate design made from solid aluminium. The performance of the conventional bipolar plate/flow field was directly compared to that of the aluminium-foam novel design at the same operational conditions. Results show that the cell current, voltage and power density were improved. As importantly, the conversion efficiency was higher for the aluminium-foam design, and the fuel consumption was reduced.