IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v280y2020ics0306261920314550.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gas distribution and droplet removal of metal foam flow field for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Author

Listed:
  • Bao, Zhiming
  • Niu, Zhiqiang
  • Jiao, Kui

Abstract

Recently, porous metal foam has gained much attention as an alternative gas distributor of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. However, the gas distribution in the intricate porous flow field is different from the conventional flow channels and the liquid droplet behavior remains unclear. Thus, this study numerically investigated the two-phase mass transport capacities of the metal foam flow field. The metal foam morphology is reconstructed based on X-ray computational tomography technique and the two-phase interface is capture by volume of fluid method. A divergent gas transport mode is observed, which promotes the uniformity and convection of gas reactant flow with a much lower permeability than conventional flow channels. The heterogeneity of metal foam pore distribution should be minimized to reduce the pore-scale weak flow area. In addition, the air drag force on liquid droplet grows with droplet diameter in a similar way to that of a flow channel, but the resistance for liquid removal is no longer the shear force by wall surface but the adhesion by ligament surface. The hydrophobicity of ligaments is found necessary to reduce liquid retention phenomenon. In addition, the variation of gas velocity exhibits a stronger influence than droplet diameter on liquid removal, indicating that the metal foam flow field is applicable to high-current-density operation conditions for proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

Suggested Citation

  • Bao, Zhiming & Niu, Zhiqiang & Jiao, Kui, 2020. "Gas distribution and droplet removal of metal foam flow field for proton exchange membrane fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:280:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920314550
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261920314550
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.116011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Yun & Chen, Ken S. & Mishler, Jeffrey & Cho, Sung Chan & Adroher, Xavier Cordobes, 2011. "A review of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells: Technology, applications, and needs on fundamental research," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(4), pages 981-1007, April.
    2. Sharaf, Omar Z. & Orhan, Mehmet F., 2014. "An overview of fuel cell technology: Fundamentals and applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 810-853.
    3. Yuan, Wei & Tang, Yong & Yang, Xiaojun & Wan, Zhenping, 2012. "Porous metal materials for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells – A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 309-329.
    4. Huo, Sen & Cooper, Nathanial James & Smith, Travis Lee & Park, Jae Wan & Jiao, Kui, 2017. "Experimental investigation on PEM fuel cell cold start behavior containing porous metal foam as cathode flow distributor," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 101-114.
    5. Wang, Yifei & Leung, Dennis Y.C. & Xuan, Jin & Wang, Huizhi, 2016. "A review on unitized regenerative fuel cell technologies, part-A: Unitized regenerative proton exchange membrane fuel cells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 961-977.
    6. Ashley Fly & Kyoungyoun Kim & John Gordon & Daniel Butcher & Rui Chen, 2019. "Liquid Water Transport in Porous Metal Foam Flow-Field Fuel Cells: A Two-Phase Numerical Modelling and Ex-Situ Experimental Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-14, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tang, Wei & Chang, Guofeng & Xie, Jiaping & Wang, Chao & Shen, Jun & Pan, Xiangmin & Du, Daochang & Liu, Zhaoming & Yuan, Hao & Wei, Xuezhe & Dai, Haifeng, 2024. "A new insight into the in-plane heterogeneity of commercial-sized fuel cells via a novel probability distribution-based method," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 368(C).
    2. Yunjin Ao & Yong-Chao Liu & Salah Laghrouche & Denis Candusso, 2024. "Dynamic Fractional-Order Model of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell System for Sustainability Improvement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Chen, Jinxing & Bao, Zhiming & Xu, Yunfei & Fan, Linhao & Du, Qing & Qu, Guanshu & Li, Feiqiang & Jiao, Kui, 2024. "Investigation of liquid retention behavior in the flow field plate of large-size proton exchange membrane fuel cells: Effects of sub-distribution zone," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    4. Huang, Haozhong & Li, Xuan & Li, Songwei & Guo, Xiaoyu & Liu, Mingxin & Wang, Tongying & Lei, Han, 2023. "Evaluating the effect of refined flow channels in a developed biomimetic flow field on PEMFC performance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    5. Culubret, S. & Rubio, M.A. & Sanchez, D.G. & Urquia, A., 2024. "Performance uniformity analysis in polymer electrolyte fuel cell using long-term dynamic simulation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 365(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Qing-Hui & Yang, Song & Zhou, Wei & Li, Jing-Rong & Xu, Zhi-Jia & Ke, Yu-Zhi & Yu, Wei & Hu, Guang-Hua, 2018. "Optimizing the porosity configuration of porous copper fiber sintered felt for methanol steam reforming micro-reactor based on flow distribution," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 243-261.
    2. Peng, Fei & Zhao, Yuanzhe & Li, Xiaopeng & Liu, Zhixiang & Chen, Weirong & Liu, Yang & Zhou, Donghua, 2017. "Development of master-slave energy management strategy based on fuzzy logic hysteresis state machine and differential power processing compensation for a PEMFC-LIB-SC hybrid tramway," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 346-363.
    3. Liao, Shuxin & Qiu, Diankai & Yi, Peiyun & Peng, Linfa & Lai, Xinmin, 2022. "Modeling of a novel cathode flow field design with optimized sub-channels to improve drainage for proton exchange membrane fuel cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PB).
    4. Bae, Suk Joo & Kim, Seong-Joon & Lee, Jin-Hwa & Song, Inseob & Kim, Nam-In & Seo, Yongho & Kim, Ki Buem & Lee, Naesung & Park, Jun-Young, 2014. "Degradation pattern prediction of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stack with series reliability structure via durability data of single cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 48-55.
    5. Lin, Jui-Yen & Shih, Yu-Jen & Chen, Po-Yen & Huang, Yao-Hui, 2016. "Precipitation recovery of boron from aqueous solution by chemical oxo-precipitation at room temperature," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1052-1058.
    6. Wang, Junye, 2015. "Theory and practice of flow field designs for fuel cell scaling-up: A critical review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 640-663.
    7. Jiao, Kui & Bachman, John & Zhou, Yibo & Park, Jae Wan, 2014. "Effect of induced cross flow on flow pattern and performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 75-82.
    8. Sagar Roy & Smruti Ragunath, 2018. "Emerging Membrane Technologies for Water and Energy Sustainability: Future Prospects, Constraints and Challenges," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-32, November.
    9. Zhang, Lu & Liu, Jie & Du, Shaojie & Zhao, Chen, 2024. "Multiphase flow dynamics in metal foam proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    10. Baik, Kyung Don & Seo, Il Sung, 2018. "Metallic bipolar plate with a multi-hole structure in the rib regions for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 333-339.
    11. Zhu, Li & Chen, Junghui, 2018. "Prognostics of PEM fuel cells based on Gaussian process state space models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 63-73.
    12. Peng, Fei & Zhao, Yuanzhe & Chen, Ting & Zhang, Xuexia & Chen, Weirong & Zhou, Donghua & Li, Qi, 2018. "Development of robust suboptimal real-time power sharing strategy for modern fuel cell based hybrid tramways considering operational uncertainties and performance degradation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 503-521.
    13. Awin, Yussef & Dukhan, Nihad, 2019. "Experimental performance assessment of metal-foam flow fields for proton exchange membrane fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 1-1.
    14. Pu, Zonghua & Zhang, Gaixia & Hassanpour, Amir & Zheng, Dewen & Wang, Shanyu & Liao, Shijun & Chen, Zhangxin & Sun, Shuhui, 2021. "Regenerative fuel cells: Recent progress, challenges, perspectives and their applications for space energy system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    15. Huo, Sen & Cooper, Nathanial James & Smith, Travis Lee & Park, Jae Wan & Jiao, Kui, 2017. "Experimental investigation on PEM fuel cell cold start behavior containing porous metal foam as cathode flow distributor," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 101-114.
    16. Wang, Yujie & Sun, Zhendong & Chen, Zonghai, 2019. "Development of energy management system based on a rule-based power distribution strategy for hybrid power sources," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 1055-1066.
    17. Jouin, Marine & Bressel, Mathieu & Morando, Simon & Gouriveau, Rafael & Hissel, Daniel & Péra, Marie-Cécile & Zerhouni, Noureddine & Jemei, Samir & Hilairet, Mickael & Ould Bouamama, Belkacem, 2016. "Estimating the end-of-life of PEM fuel cells: Guidelines and metrics," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 87-97.
    18. Mohammed, Hanin & Al-Othman, Amani & Nancarrow, Paul & Tawalbeh, Muhammad & El Haj Assad, Mamdouh, 2019. "Direct hydrocarbon fuel cells: A promising technology for improving energy efficiency," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 207-219.
    19. Wu, Horng-Wen, 2016. "A review of recent development: Transport and performance modeling of PEM fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 81-106.
    20. Vasile, Nicolò S. & Doherty, Ronan & Monteverde Videla, Alessandro H.A. & Specchia, Stefania, 2016. "3D multi-physics modeling of a gas diffusion electrode for oxygen reduction reaction for electrochemical energy conversion in PEM fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 435-450.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:280:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920314550. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.