Optimization of active area of proton exchange membrane fuel cell with better water management

Abstract

Water flooding is one of the major issues which is influencing the performance of PEMFC, while scaling up the active area. Water accumulation in between the GDL and cathode flow field landing in PEMFC can be removed by fixing porous inserts along the landing area of the cathode flow field. In this paper, the optimum active area of the PEMFC is found from the experimental investigations of three active area sizes of 25 cm2, 36 cm2 and 70 cm2 with better water management by fixing porous inserts along the landing surface. All three active areas of PEMFCs with three different flow fields viz. Serpentine; Uniform and Stagger patterned pin types having porous inserts on cathode side have been investigated experimentally. The PEMFCs with active area of 25 cm2, 36 cm2 and 70 cm2 with stagger patterned pin types having porous inserts have obtained maximum power densities as 0.270 W/cm2, 0.338 W/cm2and 0.170 W/cm2 respectively. The PEMFC with active area of 36 cm2 yields higher power density compared to 25 cm2 and 70 cm2 PEMFCs. So it is found that the active area of 36 cm2 is the optimum active area of single cell PEMFC for maximum performance.