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Energies
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Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells 2019
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Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells 2019

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A5: Hydrogen Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2020) | Viewed by 11508

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Vladimir Gurau

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Robotics Process Development Laboratory (RPDL), Department of Manufacturing Engineering, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30458, USA
Interests: industrial robots; autonomous vehicles; machine vision; machine learning; advanced manufacturing; fuel cells; renewable energy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), also known as proton exchange membrane fuel cell, is capable of delivering high gravimetric and volumetric power densities and offers the advantages of rapid start-up and good durability compared to other fuel cell types. For these reasons, PEMFCs currently find extensive applications in transportation and stationary uses. When compared to other types of fuel cells, PEMFCs have dominated the market in recent years in both the number of units and total power shipped. The technical challenges that need to be addressed include: the development of catalysts with increased activity and durability, with reduced platinum group metal (PGM) loading or no PGMs; development of membranes with increased conductivity in conditions of low relative humidity and elevated temperatures, with increased mechanical and chemical stability and reduced cost; membranes that are capable of operating at temperatures up to 120 °C for automotive applications and above 120 °C for stationary applications, which are needed for better thermal management; optimization of gas diffusion layers (GDLs) with increased durability and decreased cost, which are sought to optimize fuel cell performance at elevated power densities. Manufacturing research and development is needed to prepare advanced manufacturing and assembly technologies that are necessary for low-cost, high-volume fuel cell powerplant production. High-priority manufacturing research and development needed for PEMFCs include efforts to develop technologies for high-speed manufacturing of fuel cell components; to develop automated processes for assembling fuel cell stacks; to develop agile, flexible manufacturing and assembly processes; and to establish flexible automated manufacturing technology facilities.

To address the needs in today’s fuel cell industry, this Special Issue on PEMFCs focuses on research related to:

  • Material durability and reliability;
  • Innovative and alternative materials for PEMFCs;
  • Characterization methods;
  • Air, heat, and water management;
  • Numerical modeling and simulations;
  • Fuel cell system integration;
  • Industrial production technologies;
  • Operating strategies;
  • Methods and strategies for material quality control.

Dr. Vladimir Gurau
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • PEMFCs
  • numerical simulations
  • modeling
  • fuel cell characterization
  • materials and components for fuel cells
  • thermal and water management
  • degradation
  • failure mechanisms
  • production technology
  • system integration

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 3829 KiB  
Article
Prediction of Performance Variation Caused by Manufacturing Tolerances and Defects in Gas Diffusion Electrodes of Phosphoric Acid (PA)–Doped Polybenzimidazole (PBI)-Based High-Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells
by Vladimir Gurau and Emory S. De Castro
Energies 2020, 13(6), 1345; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13061345 - 13 Mar 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3531
Abstract
The automated process of coating catalyst layers on gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) for high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells results inherently into a number of defects. These defects consist of agglomerates in which the platinum sites cannot be accessed by phosphoric acid and [...] Read more.
The automated process of coating catalyst layers on gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) for high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells results inherently into a number of defects. These defects consist of agglomerates in which the platinum sites cannot be accessed by phosphoric acid and which are the consequence of an inconsistent coating, uncoated regions, scratches, knots, blemishes, folds, or attached fine particles—all ranging from μm to mm size. These electrochemically inactive spots cause a reduction of the effective catalyst area per unit volume (cm2/cm3) and determine a drop in fuel cell performance. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is presented that predicts performance variation caused by manufacturing tolerances and defects of the GDE and which enables the creation of a six-sigma product specification for Advent phosphoric acid (PA)-doped polybenzimidazole (PBI)-based membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs). The model was used to predict the total volume of defects that would cause a 10% drop in performance. It was found that a 10% performance drop at the nominal operating regime would be caused by uniformly distributed defects totaling 39% of the catalyst layer volume (~0.5 defects/μm2). The study provides an upper bound for the estimation of the impact of the defect location on performance drop. It was found that the impact on the local current density is higher when the defect is located closer to the interface with the membrane. The local current density decays less than 2% in the presence of an isolated defect, regardless of its location along the active area of the catalyst layer. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells 2019)
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12 pages, 2818 KiB  
Article
PtPd Hybrid Composite Catalysts as Cathodes for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells
by Yazmín Yorely Rivera-Lugo, Kevin Isaac Pérez-Muñoz, Balter Trujillo-Navarrete, Carolina Silva-Carrillo, Edgar Alonso Reynoso-Soto, Julio Cesar Calva Yañez, Shui Wai Lin, José Roberto Flores-Hernández and Rosa María Félix-Navarro
Energies 2020, 13(2), 316; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13020316 - 9 Jan 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2959
Abstract
In this work, PtPd hybrid cathodic catalysts were prepared for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) application by two different strategies. The first strategy was the physical mixing of bimetallic PtPd onto partially reduced graphene oxide (PtPd/rGO) and PtPd onto multi-walled carbon [...] Read more.
In this work, PtPd hybrid cathodic catalysts were prepared for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) application by two different strategies. The first strategy was the physical mixing of bimetallic PtPd onto partially reduced graphene oxide (PtPd/rGO) and PtPd onto multi-walled carbon nanotubes (PtPd/MWCNT); (PtPd/rGO) + (PtPd/MWCNT). The second strategy was physical mixing of both carbonaceous supports before the PtPd deposition to form PtPd/(rGO:MWCNT). Our experimental results revealed that the PtPd nanomaterial prepared over a mixture of both carbonaceous supports had better oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and PEMFC performances than the individually prepared catalysts. The insertion of MWCNT between rGO sheets prevented their stacking. This promoted the diffusion of oxygen molecules through the interlayer spacing, enhancing the ORR’s electrocatalytic activity. The durability test demonstrated that the hybrid supporting material dramatically improved the catalyst’s stability even after 3000 reaction cycles. This highlighted an increase greater than 100% for hybrid nanocomposites in their electrocatalytic activity as compared with the PtPd/rGO nanocomposite. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells 2019)
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12 pages, 3683 KiB  
Article
Characterization of Effective In-Plane Electrical Resistivity of a Gas Diffusion Layer in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells through Freeze–Thaw Thermal Cycles
by Yanqin Chen, Chao Jiang and Chongdu Cho
Energies 2020, 13(1), 145; https://doi.org/10.3390/en13010145 - 27 Dec 2019
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4038
Abstract
The electrical property of gas diffusion layers (GDLs) plays a significant role in influencing the overall performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The electrical degradation performance of GDLs has not been reported sufficiently. Understanding the electrical degradation characteristics of GDLs is [...] Read more.
The electrical property of gas diffusion layers (GDLs) plays a significant role in influencing the overall performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The electrical degradation performance of GDLs has not been reported sufficiently. Understanding the electrical degradation characteristics of GDLs is vital to better fuel cell performance, higher efficiency, and longer service time. This paper investigated the effective in-plane electrical resistivity of a commercial GDL by considering environmental and assembly conditions similar to those in use for the operation of PEMFCs. The effective in-plane electrical resistivity of the GDL, subjected to a series of freeze–thaw thermal cycles, was characterized to study its progressive electrical degradation with thermal cycles. Experimental results indicated that, under low compressive loads, the effective in-plane electrical resistivity of the commercial GDL showed weak anisotropy, and was greatly influenced by the transformation of carbon fiber connection in the porous layer. In particular, the thermal aging treatment on the GDL through the first 100 freeze–thaw cycles contributed a lot to its in-plane electrical degradation performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells 2019)
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