Design and Operating Parameters on the Performance of Planar and Ducted Air Breathing PEM Fuel Cell

Abstract

Water management is a burning issue in Air Breathing Fuel Cells (ABFC). Flooding and dehydration are the two main degradation mechanisms that occur when water management is not adequate. In this paper, experimental studies on air breathing fuel cell with ducted and planar design on cathode side were studied, including experiments with three different ratios of cathode open area with each design, varying the channel dimensions in the ducted design and varying the current collecting and the open area in the planar design. In ducted design the mass transfer limitations and flooding can be reduced with wider channels, where as in planar design larger opening area reduce the mass transfer limitations however wide channels require a rigid gas diffusion backing with current collecting ducts. The effect of varying hydrogen flow rate, various cell orientations, various ambient temperatures of both ducted and planar designs were compared.