IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i5p2099-d1075680.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Recent Development of Fuel Cell Core Components and Key Materials: A Review

Author

Listed:
  • Yuemeng Zhang

    (School of Vehicle Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing 400054, China)

  • Jia Wang

    (China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co., Ltd. (CATARC), Tianjin 300300, China)

  • Zhanhui Yao

    (China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co., Ltd. (CATARC), Tianjin 300300, China)

Abstract

Fuel cells, as key carriers for hydrogen energy development and utilization, provide a vital opportunity to achieve zero-emission energy use and have thus attracted considerable attention from fundamental research to industrial application levels. Considering the current status of fuel cell technology and the industry, this paper presents a systematic elaboration of progress and development trends in fuel cell core components and key materials, such as stacks, bipolar plates, membrane electrodes, proton exchange membranes, catalysts, gas diffusion layers, air compressors, and hydrogen circulation systems. In addition, some proposals for the development of fuel cell vehicles in China are presented, based on the analysis of current supporting policies, standards, and regulations, along with manufacturing costs in China. The fuel cell industry of China is still in the budding stage of development and thus suffers some challenges, such as lagging fundamental systems, imperfect standards and regulations, high product costs, and uncertain technical safety and stability levels. Therefore, to accelerate the development of the hydrogen energy and fuel cell vehicle industry, it is an urgent need to establish a complete supporting policy system, accelerate technical breakthroughs, transformations, and applications of key materials and core components, and reduce the cost of hydrogen use.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuemeng Zhang & Jia Wang & Zhanhui Yao, 2023. "Recent Development of Fuel Cell Core Components and Key Materials: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2099-:d:1075680
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2099/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2099/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Ben & Ke, Wandi & Luo, Maji & Wang, Jun & Tu, Zhengkai & Pan, Mu & Zhang, Haining & Liu, Xiaowei & Liu, Wei, 2015. "Operation characteristics and carbon corrosion of PEMFC (Proton exchange membrane fuel cell) with dead-ended anode for high hydrogen utilization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 799-806.
    2. Li, Yubai & Zhou, Zhifu & Liu, Xianglei & Wu, Wei-Tao, 2019. "Modeling of PEM fuel cell with thin MEA under low humidity operating condition," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 1513-1527.
    3. Kui Jiao & Jin Xuan & Qing Du & Zhiming Bao & Biao Xie & Bowen Wang & Yan Zhao & Linhao Fan & Huizhi Wang & Zhongjun Hou & Sen Huo & Nigel P. Brandon & Yan Yin & Michael D. Guiver, 2021. "Designing the next generation of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells," Nature, Nature, vol. 595(7867), pages 361-369, July.
    4. 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.
    5. Cha, Dowon & Jeon, Seung Won & Yang, Wonseok & Kim, Dongwoo & Kim, Yongchan, 2018. "Comparative performance evaluation of self-humidifying PEMFCs with short-side-chain and long-side-chain membranes under various operating conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 320-328.
    6. Lu Zhu & Lanli Hu & Serhat Yüksel & Hasan Dinçer & Hüsne Karakuş & Gözde Gülseven Ubay, 2020. "Analysis of Strategic Directions in Sustainable Hydrogen Investment Decisions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-19, June.
    7. Chen, Huicui & Pei, Pucheng & Song, Mancun, 2015. "Lifetime prediction and the economic lifetime of Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 154-163.
    8. Liu, Zhiyang & Chen, Jian & Liu, Hao & Yan, Chizhou & Hou, Yang & He, Qinggang & Zhang, Jiujun & Hissel, Daniel, 2020. "Anode purge management for hydrogen utilization and stack durability improvement of PEM fuel cell systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    9. Qiu, Diankai & Peng, Linfa & Yi, Peiyun & Lehnert, Werner & Lai, Xinmin, 2021. "Review on proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack assembly: Quality evaluation, assembly method, contact behavior and process design," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    10. 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.
    11. Hou, Junbo & Yang, Min & Zhang, Junliang, 2020. "Active and passive fuel recirculation for solid oxide and proton exchange membrane fuel cells," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 1355-1371.
    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. Mingyue Hu & Xiao Wu & Yue Yuan & Chuanbo Xu, 2024. "Competitive Analysis of Heavy Trucks with Five Types of Fuels under Different Scenarios—A Case Study of China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-21, August.

    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. Song, Yajie & Wang, Xinli & Wang, Lei & Pan, Fengwen & Chen, Wenmiao & Xi, Fuqiang, 2021. "A twin-nozzle ejector for hydrogen recirculation in wide power operation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    2. Chen, Xin & Zhang, Ying & Xu, Sheng & Dong, Fei, 2023. "Bibliometric analysis for research trends and hotspots in heat and mass transfer and its management of proton exchange membrane fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    3. Li, Bing & Wan, Kechuang & Xie, Meng & Chu, Tiankuo & Wang, Xiaolei & Li, Xiang & Yang, Daijun & Ming, Pingwen & Zhang, Cunman, 2022. "Durability degradation mechanism and consistency analysis for proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    4. Zhang, Xiaoqing & Yang, Jiapei & Ma, Xiao & Zhuge, Weilin & Shuai, Shijin, 2022. "Modelling and analysis on effects of penetration of microporous layer into gas diffusion layer in PEM fuel cells: Focusing on mass transport," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PA).
    5. Zheng Huang & Laisuo Su & Yunjie Yang & Linsong Gao & Xinyu Liu & Heng Huang & Yubai Li & Yongchen Song, 2023. "Three-Dimensional Simulation on the Effects of Different Parameters and Pt Loading on the Long-Term Performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-22, February.
    6. 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.
    7. Pei, Pucheng & Wu, Ziyao & Li, Yuehua & Jia, Xiaoning & Chen, Dongfang & Huang, Shangwei, 2018. "Improved methods to measure hydrogen crossover current in proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 338-347.
    8. Yao, Jing & Wu, Zhen & Wang, Huan & Yang, Fusheng & Xuan, Jin & Xing, Lei & Ren, Jianwei & Zhang, Zaoxiao, 2022. "Design and multi-objective optimization of low-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells with efficient water recovery and high electrochemical performance," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    9. 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).
    10. 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.
    11. Pei, Pucheng & Jia, Xiaoning & Xu, Huachi & Li, Pengcheng & Wu, Ziyao & Li, Yuehua & Ren, Peng & Chen, Dongfang & Huang, Shangwei, 2018. "The recovery mechanism of proton exchange membrane fuel cell in micro-current operation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 1-9.
    12. Xu, Jiawei & Wu, Yuhua & Xiao, Shengying & Wang, Yifei & Xu, Xinhai, 2023. "Synergic effect investigation of carbon monoxide and other compositions on the high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 669-680.
    13. Tom Fletcher & Kambiz Ebrahimi, 2020. "The Effect of Fuel Cell and Battery Size on Efficiency and Cell Lifetime for an L7e Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-18, November.
    14. Chen, Huicui & Zhang, Ruirui & Xia, Zhifeng & Weng, Qianyao & Zhang, Tong & Pei, Pucheng, 2023. "Experimental investigation on PEM fuel cell flooding mitigation under heavy loading condition," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    15. 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.
    16. Meng, Huanru & Yu, Xianxian & Luo, Xiaobing & Tu, Zhengkai, 2024. "Modelling and operation characteristics of air-cooled PEMFC with metallic bipolar plate used in unmanned aerial vehicle," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    17. 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.
    18. Hu, Zunyan & Xu, Liangfei & Huang, Yiyuan & Li, Jianqiu & Ouyang, Minggao & Du, Xiaoli & Jiang, Hongliang, 2018. "Comprehensive analysis of galvanostatic charge method for fuel cell degradation diagnosis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 1321-1332.
    19. 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.
    20. 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.

    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:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2099-:d:1075680. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.