Thesis-2010-Rama.pdf (3.8 MB)
On the mechanisms of electrochemical transport in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells
thesis
posted on 2010-03-09, 11:35 authored by Pratap RamaThe Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC) is well-poised to play a key role in
the portfolio of future energy technologies for civil and military applications.
Principally, the PEFC converts part of the chemical energy released during hydrogenoxidation
and oxygen-reduction into electrical energy, generating water a bi-product.
It is potentially a zero-emissions technology which can operate silently due to the
absence of any moving parts, has quick start-up characteristics and can achieve high
thermodynamic efficiency. In order to ensure that the PEFC emerges as a viable
option for all applications, it is necessary to ensure that the technology is reliable,
capable of delivering performance and cost-effective throughout its life-cycle. To
achieve these objectives, a better fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of
electrochemical transport in the PEFC is required than is presently available.
The literature identifies that multi-component electrochemical transport within
the PEFC plays a central role in fuel cell operation and longevity. Water transport is
one of these. It is well-understood that excessive amounts of water within the porous
electrodes of the cell can cause flooding, which impedes the supply of reactant gases.
It is also well-understood that insufficient water can cause the polymer electrolyte
membrane (PEM) to dehydrate, thereby reducing its proton conductivity. Both of
these processes can undermine cell performance. Repetitive hydration cycles are also
known to precipitate degradation mechanisms which can undermine reliability.
However, the mechanisms of multi-component and potentially two-phase transport
across the PEFC as a multi-layered assembly which includes the porous electrodes
and the PEM are not understood as well: the mechanisms of contaminant transport,
fuel crossover and liquid water infiltration particularly through the PEM are important
examples.
The modelling literature demonstrates that electrochemical transport in the
PEFC is treated either through the use of dilute solution theory or concentrated
solution theory. The modelling literature also demonstrates a wide spectrum in the
application of modelling assumptions and the formulation of electrochemical
equations to simulate transport in the different layers of the PEFC. This thesis describes research aimed at reconciling the different modelling approaches and
philosophies in the literature by developing and applying a unified mechanistic
electrochemical treatment to describe multi-component, two-phase transport across
the layers of the PEFC.
The approach adopted here is first to construct a multi-component zerodimensional
model for multi-component input gases which is merged with a multilayer
PEFC model to correctly predict the boundary conditions in the gas channels
based on the cross-flow of components through the cell. The model is validated using
data from the open literature and applied to understand contaminant crossover from
anode to cathode. The second step is to develop a unified mechanistic electrochemical
treatment to describe multi-component transport across the layers of the PEFC: the
general transport equation. This is central to the contribution of this thesis. It is
theoretically validated by deriving the key transport equations used in the benchmark
fuel cell modelling literature. It is then implemented with the multi-component input
model developed previously and validated using data from the open literature. The
model is subsequently applied to understand fuel crossover characteristics in the cell.
The third and final step is to further-develop the application of the general transport
equation to account for two-phase transport across the layers of the PEFC. The
resulting model is validated against three different sets of data from the open literature
and subsequently applied to understand the effects of PEM thickness, anode gas
humidification, cell compression and PEM structural reinforcement on liquid
infiltration and two-phase transport across the PEM.
It is demonstrated that the general transport equation developed in this thesis
establishes a backbone understanding of the modelling and simulation of transport
across the layers of the PEFC. The study successfully reconciles the different
modelling philosophies in the fuel cell literature. The progressive validation and
application of the general transport equation demonstrates the potential to enhance the
scientific understanding of factors affecting PEFC performance and demonstrates its
value as a tool for computationally-based cell design, optimisation and diagnostics.
History
School
- Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering
Department
- Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering
Publisher
© Pratap RamaPublication date
2010Notes
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.EThOS Persistent ID
uk.bl.ethos.510343Language
- en