Loughborough University
Browse
Thesis-2010-Rama.pdf (3.8 MB)

On the mechanisms of electrochemical transport in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells

Download (3.8 MB)
thesis
posted on 2010-03-09, 11:35 authored by Pratap Rama
The 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 Rama

Publication date

2010

Notes

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.510343

Language

  • en

Usage metrics

    Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering Theses

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC