IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v217y2023ics096014812301100x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of varying rib area portions on the performance of PEM fuel cells: Insights into design and optimization

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Jiatang
  • Zhang, Houcheng
  • Cai, Weiwei
  • Ye, Weiqiang
  • Tong, Yiheng
  • Cheng, Hansong

Abstract

The optimization of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells via bipolar plate (BPP) design is critical, yet the impact of BPP/channel redesign on electric resistance and cell output has been less explored. This study uses multi-physics models to analyze how PEM fuel cell performance is influenced by rib area portion variations (20%–70%). The potential gradient is determined to be the primary driver for charge conduction, and the benefits of optimized charge transport for enhancing cell outputs are established. An intricate interplay between rib area portion, electron transport efficiency, and cell resistance is uncovered. It is demonstrated that larger rib area portions, while promoting electron transport, inadvertently increase interfacial and overall cell resistance, compromising performance. The study also emphasizes the necessity for a more nuanced consideration of oxygen over hydrogen, given the implications on cell resistance and gas flux. Rib area portions of 20% and 30% are identified as achieving superior performance by 24.3%, offering an optimal design strategy. Crucial insights for improving PEM fuel cell performance through BPP design are provided in this study.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Jiatang & Zhang, Houcheng & Cai, Weiwei & Ye, Weiqiang & Tong, Yiheng & Cheng, Hansong, 2023. "Effect of varying rib area portions on the performance of PEM fuel cells: Insights into design and optimization," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:217:y:2023:i:c:s096014812301100x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2023.119185
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014812301100X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2023.119185?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. Taymaz, Imdat & Benli, Merthan, 2010. "Numerical study of assembly pressure effect on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2134-2140.
    2. Cai, Yonghua & Wu, Di & Sun, Jingming & Chen, Ben, 2021. "The effect of cathode channel blockages on the enhanced mass transfer and performance of PEMFC," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    3. Han, In-Su & Lim, Jongkoo & Jeong, Jeehoon & Shin, Hyun Khil, 2013. "Effect of serpentine flow-field designs on performance of PEMFC stacks for micro-CHP systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 180-188.
    4. Akbari, Mohammad Hadi & Rismanchi, Behzad, 2008. "Numerical investigation of flow field configuration and contact resistance for PEM fuel cell performance," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1775-1783.
    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. Zhu, Huichao & Xiao, Liusheng & Kuang, Min & Wang, Jiatang & Zhang, Houcheng, 2024. "Innovative use of air gap membrane distillation to harvest waste heat from alkaline fuel cell for efficient freshwater production: A comprehensive 4E study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(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. Atyabi, Seyed Ali & Afshari, Ebrahim & Wongwises, Somchai & Yan, Wen-Mon & Hadjadj, Abdellah & Shadloo, Mostafa Safdari, 2019. "Effects of assembly pressure on PEM fuel cell performance by taking into accounts electrical and thermal contact resistances," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 490-501.
    2. Poornesh, K.K. & Cho, Chongdu & Kim, Do-Young & Tak, Yongsug, 2010. "Effect of gas-diffusion electrode material heterogeneity on the structural integrity of polymer electrolyte fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 5241-5249.
    3. Baik, Kyung Don & Hong, Bo Ki & Han, Kookil & Kim, Min Soo, 2014. "Effects of anisotropic bending stiffness of gas diffusion layers on the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells with bipolar plates employing different channel depths," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 356-364.
    4. Salva, J. Antonio & Iranzo, Alfredo & Rosa, Felipe & Tapia, Elvira, 2016. "Validation of cell voltage and water content in a PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell model using neutron imaging for different operating conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 100-112.
    5. Yousefi Tehrani, Mehran & Mirfarsi, Seyed Hesam & Rowshanzamir, Soosan, 2022. "Mechanical stress and strain investigation of sulfonated Poly(ether ether ketone) proton exchange membrane in fuel cells: A numerical study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 182-200.
    6. Yonghua Cai & Jingming Sun & Fan Wei & Ben Chen, 2022. "Effect of Baffle Dimensionless Size Factor on the Performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-19, May.
    7. Movahedi, M. & Ramiar, A. & Ranjber, A.A., 2018. "3D numerical investigation of clamping pressure effect on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell with interdigitated flow field," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 617-632.
    8. Ahmed Mohmed Dafalla & Lin Wei & Bereket Tsegai Habte & Jian Guo & Fangming Jiang, 2022. "Membrane Electrode Assembly Degradation Modeling of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-26, December.
    9. Cheng, Shan-Jen & Miao, Jr-Ming & Wu, Sheng-Ju, 2012. "Investigating the effects of operational factors on PEMFC performance based on CFD simulations using a three-level full-factorial design," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 250-260.
    10. Ismail, M.S. & Ingham, D.B. & Ma, L. & Pourkashanian, M., 2013. "The contact resistance between gas diffusion layers and bipolar plates as they are assembled in proton exchange membrane fuel cells," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 40-45.
    11. Wang, Qianqian & Tang, Fumin & Li, Bing & Dai, Haifeng & Zheng, Jim P. & Zhang, Cunman & Ming, Pingwen, 2022. "Investigation of the thermal responses under gas channel and land inside proton exchange membrane fuel cell with assembly pressure," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    12. Rahnavard, Aylin & Rowshanzamir, Soosan & Parnian, Mohammad Javad & Amirkhanlou, Gholam Reza, 2015. "The effect of sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) as the electrode ionomer for self-humidifying nanocomposite proton exchange membrane fuel cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 746-757.
    13. Carton, J.G. & Olabi, A.G., 2017. "Three-dimensional proton exchange membrane fuel cell model: Comparison of double channel and open pore cellular foam flow plates," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 185-195.
    14. Tian, Cong & Yuan, Fang & Deng, Tianlun & He, Qianhui & Hu, Cen & Chen, Yong & Liu, Wei, 2024. "Coupled optimization of auxiliary channels and porosity gradient of GDL for PEMFC," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    15. Zhang, Xiuqin & Guo, Juncheng & Chen, Jincan, 2010. "The parametric optimum analysis of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell and its load matching," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 5294-5299.
    16. Sun, Feng & Su, Dandan & Li, Ping & Lin, Fanxin & Miu, Guodong & Wan, Qi & Yin, Yujie, 2024. "Effects of three-dimensional type flow fields on mass transfer and performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    17. shi, Lei & Tang, Xingwang & Xu, Sichuan & Liu, Ze, 2024. "Numerical research on liquid water removal mechanism and the influence of pore structure on water removal rate based on real pore GDL structure during shutdown purge of fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    18. Yu, Xianxian & Cai, Shanshan & Luo, Xiaobing & Tu, Zhengkai, 2024. "Barrel effect in an air-cooled proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    19. Hwang, Jenn-Jiang & Dlamini, Mangaliso Menzi & Weng, Fang-Bor & Chang, Tseng & Lin, Chih-Hong & Weng, Shih-Cheng, 2022. "Simulation of fine mesh implementation on the cathode for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(PA).
    20. Qiu, Diankai & Peng, Linfa & Lai, Xinmin & Ni, Meng & Lehnert, Werner, 2019. "Mechanical failure and mitigation strategies for the membrane in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.

    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:renene:v:217:y:2023:i:c:s096014812301100x. 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.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    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.