Performance of PEFC Under Different Gas-Mixing Conditions

Abstract

For PEFCs’ grand-scale commercialization, their performance should be further improved. The performance of PEFC is the results of the distribution of local current density and materials concentration, especially oxygen and water. In addition, the in-plane transport of reactant gas in the gas diffusion layer (GDL), which is difficult to measure, affects the distribution of oxygen partial pressure and relative humidity (RH) by mixing the gas with different residence time. In this study, the distribution of local current density as well as oxygen partial pressure and RH was estimated by varying active area and gas flow rate. Furthermore, two kinds of different gas channels, parallel and serpentine, were utilized to estimate the effect of gas mixing in the GDL. The concept of space time was used to discuss the effects of gas mixing in the perspective of chemical engineering. The results may provide a theory basis for a cell design procedure.