TY - JOUR
T1 - Simulation on water transportation in gas diffusion layer of a PEM fuel cell
T2 - Influence of non-uniform PTFE distribution
AU - Zhou, Shikun
AU - Xie, Gongnan
AU - Hu, Haibao
AU - Ni, Meng
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (JCYJ20210324142812032), the National Nature Science Foundation of China (51879218), the Major Program of the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2019ZD11) and the National 111 Project (B18041).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC
PY - 2022/12/29
Y1 - 2022/12/29
N2 - Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are promising clean power sources with high energy conversion efficiency, fast startup, and no pollutant emission. The generated water in the cathode can cause water flooding of the catalyst layer (CL), which in turn can significantly decrease the fuel cell performance. To address this significant issue of PEMFC, a new gas diffusion layer (GDL) with non-uniform distribution of PTFE is proposed for water removal from the CL. The feasibility of this new GDL design is numerically evaluated by a Lattice-Boltzmann Method (LBM)-based two-phase flow model. The porous structure of the new GDL design is numerically reconstructed, followed by LBM simulations of the water transport in GDL. Three types of different wetting conditions are considered. It is found that liquid water transported 7.87% more with a single row of wetted solids and 13.36% more with two rows of wetted solids. The results clearly demonstrate that the liquid water can be effectively removed from the GDL by proper arrangement of hydrophilic solids in the GDL.
AB - Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are promising clean power sources with high energy conversion efficiency, fast startup, and no pollutant emission. The generated water in the cathode can cause water flooding of the catalyst layer (CL), which in turn can significantly decrease the fuel cell performance. To address this significant issue of PEMFC, a new gas diffusion layer (GDL) with non-uniform distribution of PTFE is proposed for water removal from the CL. The feasibility of this new GDL design is numerically evaluated by a Lattice-Boltzmann Method (LBM)-based two-phase flow model. The porous structure of the new GDL design is numerically reconstructed, followed by LBM simulations of the water transport in GDL. Three types of different wetting conditions are considered. It is found that liquid water transported 7.87% more with a single row of wetted solids and 13.36% more with two rows of wetted solids. The results clearly demonstrate that the liquid water can be effectively removed from the GDL by proper arrangement of hydrophilic solids in the GDL.
KW - Gas diffusion layer
KW - Lattice Boltzmann method
KW - Proton exchange membrane fuel cell
KW - Two-phase flow
KW - Water transportation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85145990942&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.12.063
DO - 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.12.063
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85145990942
SN - 0360-3199
JO - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
JF - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
ER -