CFD-Guided Design of Non-Uniform Flow Channels in PEMFCs for Waste Heat Utilization in District Heating Networks

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), recognized as promising sources of waste heat for space heating, domestic hot water supply, and industrial thermal applications, have garnered substantial interest owing to their environmentally benign operation and high energy conversion efficiency. Since the uniformity of oxygen diffusion toward catalytic layers critically governs electrochemical performance, this study establishes a three-dimensional, non-isothermal computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to systematically optimize the cathode flow channel width distribution, targeting the maximization of power output through enhanced reactant homogeneity. Numerical results reveal that non-uniform flow channel geometries markedly improve oxygen distribution uniformity, reducing the flow inhomogeneity coefficient by 6.6% while elevating maximum power density and limiting current density by 9.1% and 7.8%, respectively, compared to conventional equal-width designs. There were improvements attributed to the establishment of longitudinal oxygen concentration gradients and we alleviated mass transfer limitations. Synergistic integration with gas diffusion layer (GDL) gradient porosity optimization further amplifies performance, yielding a 12.4% enhancement in maximum power density and a 10.4% increase in limiting current density. These findings validate the algorithm’s efficacy in resolving coupled transport constraints and underscore the necessity of multi-component optimization for advancing PEMFC design.