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Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells
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Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "D1: Advanced Energy Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 January 2021) | Viewed by 18032

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Andrew Dicks

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University, QLD 4000, Australia
Interests: hydrogen; fuel cells; renewable energy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are an exciting clean energy technology for power delivery for a range of devices from automotive applications to portable digital equipment, and as a component in renewable energy delivery systems. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are a sustainable means of power generation through the electrochemical conversion of hydrogen, especially in portable, stationary, and automotive applications. The traditional PEMFC utilizes a solid polymer electrolyte membrane based on a hydrated perfluorinated sulfonic acid (Teflon-based) between two porous electrodes comprising thin layers of catalyst coated on porous gas-diffusion layers. The membrane is both an excellent proton conductor of protons and an electronic insulator.

This Special Issue focuses on all PEMFC scientific and technological aspects that decrease cost and increase performance and durability. It covers new membrane development for high temperature operation, as well as the most recent progresses in advanced electrocatalysts, from the synthesis and characterization to the evaluation of corrosion resistance and catalytic activity, including novel characterization methods, mathematical models, and accelerated stress tests to gain additional insight into degradation mechanisms. Innovations in other cell components, including gas diffusion layers, cells, stacks, and system designs, will also be included.

Dr. Andrew Dicks
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Proton exchange membrane fuel cell
  • Nanoparticle technologies
  • Anode
  • Cathode
  • Platinum
  • Proton conductivity
  • Surface area
  • Nanoparticles
  • Polymer membranes
  • Durability
  • Electrocatalysts

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 8845 KiB  
Article
Effect of Pore Shape and Spacing on Water Droplet Dynamics in Flow Channels of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells
by Mengying Fan, Fengyun Duan, Tianqi Wang, Mingming Kang, Bin Zeng, Jian Xu, Ryan Anderson, Wei Du and Lifeng Zhang
Energies 2021, 14(5), 1250; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14051250 - 25 Feb 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2319
Abstract
Effective water management increases the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The liquid droplet movement mechanism in the cathode channel, the gas-liquid two-phase flow pattern, and the resulting pressure drop are important to water management in PEMFCs. This work employed computational [...] Read more.
Effective water management increases the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The liquid droplet movement mechanism in the cathode channel, the gas-liquid two-phase flow pattern, and the resulting pressure drop are important to water management in PEMFCs. This work employed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with a volume of fluid (VOF) to simulate the effects of two operating parameters on the liquid water flow in the cathode flow channel: Gas diffusion layer (GDL) pore shape for water emergence, and distance between GDL pores. From seven pore shapes considered in this work, the longer the windward side of the micropore is, the larger the droplet can grow, and the duration of droplet growth movement will be longer. In the cases of two micropores for water introduction, a critical pore distance is noted for whether two droplets coalesce. When the micropore distance was shorter than this critical value, different droplets coalesce after the droplets grew to a certain extent. These results indicate that the pore shape and the distance between pores should be accounted for in future simulations of PEMFC droplet dynamics and that these parameters need to be optimized when designing novel GDL structures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells)
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10 pages, 1573 KiB  
Article
Investigation on the Operating Conditions of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Based on Constant Voltage Cold Start Mode
by Yanbo Yang, Tiancai Ma, Boyu Du, Weikang Lin and Naiyuan Yao
Energies 2021, 14(3), 660; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14030660 - 28 Jan 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 1982
Abstract
The cold start property is one of the main factors restricting the fuel cell application in the automotive field. The constant voltage cold start method of the fuel cell works under low start voltage and produces high heat, which can shorten the start-up [...] Read more.
The cold start property is one of the main factors restricting the fuel cell application in the automotive field. The constant voltage cold start method of the fuel cell works under low start voltage and produces high heat, which can shorten the start-up time of the fuel cell at low temperature and has the opportunity to be applied to fuel cell vehicles. Meanwhile, in the constant voltage cold start mode, the fuel cell needs to operate under a large current, and more water is generated during the start-up process. Thus, the optimization of operating conditions for the constant voltage cold start is particularly important. However, there are relatively few studies on the optimization of operating conditions for the constant voltage cold start with a single-cell voltage less than 0.3 V. In this work, the cold start experiment of the fuel cell with constant voltage is carried out. According to the cold start experiment, the different cold start voltage, back-pressure, and the inlet flow rate are examined. Based on the experiment data, the operating conditions have a great influence on the cold start property of the fuel cell and the optimized operating conditions of the constant voltage cold start are obtained. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells)
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6 pages, 2293 KiB  
Communication
Multiscale Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Fuel Cell Nanocatalyst Plasma Sputtering Growth and Deposition
by Pascal Brault
Energies 2020, 13(14), 3584; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13143584 - 11 Jul 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2165
Abstract
Molecular dynamics simulations (MDs) are carried out for predicting platinum Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell nanocatalyst growth on a model carbon electrode. The aim is to provide a one-shot simulation of the entire multistep process of deposition in the context of plasma [...] Read more.
Molecular dynamics simulations (MDs) are carried out for predicting platinum Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell nanocatalyst growth on a model carbon electrode. The aim is to provide a one-shot simulation of the entire multistep process of deposition in the context of plasma sputtering, from sputtering of the target catalyst/transport to the electrode substrate/deposition on the porous electrode. The plasma processing reactor is reduced to nanoscale dimensions for tractable MDs using scale reduction of the plasma phase and requesting identical collision numbers in experiments and the simulation box. The present simulations reproduce the role of plasma pressure for the plasma phase growth of nanocatalysts (here, platinum). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells)
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24 pages, 11038 KiB  
Article
Energy Management Strategy of a PEM Fuel Cell Excavator with a Supercapacitor/Battery Hybrid Power Source
by Tri Cuong Do, Hoai Vu Anh Truong, Hoang Vu Dao, Cong Minh Ho, Xuan Dinh To, Tri Dung Dang and Kyoung Kwan Ahn
Energies 2019, 12(22), 4362; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12224362 - 15 Nov 2019
Cited by 41 | Viewed by 6984
Abstract
Construction machines are heavy-duty equipment and a major contributor to the environmental pollution. By using only electric motors instead of an internal combustion engine, the problems of low engine efficiency and air pollution can be solved. This paper proposed a novel energy management [...] Read more.
Construction machines are heavy-duty equipment and a major contributor to the environmental pollution. By using only electric motors instead of an internal combustion engine, the problems of low engine efficiency and air pollution can be solved. This paper proposed a novel energy management strategy for a PEM fuel cell excavator with a supercapacitor/battery hybrid power source. The fuel cell is the main power supply for most of the excavator workload while the battery/supercapacitor is the energy storage device, which supplies additional required power and recovers energy. The whole system model was built in a co-simulation environment, which is a combination of MATLAB/Simulink and AMESim software, where the fuel cell, battery, supercapacitor model, and the energy management algorithm were developed in a Simulink environment while the excavator model was designed in an AMESim environment. In this work, the energy management strategy was designed to concurrently account for power supply performance from the hybrid power sources as well as from fuel cells, and battery lifespan. The control design was proposed to distribute the power demand optimally from the excavator to the hybrid power sources in different working conditions. The simulation results were presented to demonstrate the good performance of the system. The effectiveness of the proposed energy management strategy was validated. Compared with the conventional strategies where the task requirements cannot be achieved or system stability cannot be accomplished, the proposed algorithms perfectly satisfied the working conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells)
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14 pages, 3874 KiB  
Article
Bridging the Gap between Automated Manufacturing of Fuel Cell Components and Robotic Assembly of Fuel Cell Stacks
by Devin Fowler, Vladimir Gurau and Daniel Cox
Energies 2019, 12(19), 3604; https://doi.org/10.3390/en12193604 - 20 Sep 2019
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4004
Abstract
Recently demonstrated robotic assembling technologies for fuel cell stacks used fuel cell components manually pre-arranged in stacks (presenters). Identifying the original orientation of fuel cell components and loading them in presenters for a subsequent automated assembly process is a difficult, repetitive work cycle [...] Read more.
Recently demonstrated robotic assembling technologies for fuel cell stacks used fuel cell components manually pre-arranged in stacks (presenters). Identifying the original orientation of fuel cell components and loading them in presenters for a subsequent automated assembly process is a difficult, repetitive work cycle which if done manually, deceives the advantages offered by either the automated fabrication technologies for fuel cell components or by the robotic assembly processes. We present for the first time a robotic technology which enables the integration of automated fabrication processes for fuel cell components with a robotic assembly process of fuel cell stacks into a fully automated fuel cell manufacturing line. This task uses a Yaskawa Motoman SDA5F dual arm robot with integrated machine vision system. The process is used to identify and grasp randomly placed, slightly asymmetric fuel cell components, to reorient them all in the same position and stack them in presenters in preparation for a subsequent robotic assembly process. The process was demonstrated as part of a larger endeavor of bringing to readiness advanced manufacturing technologies for alternative energy systems, and responds the high priority needs identified by the U.S. Department of Energy for fuel cells manufacturing research and development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells)
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