Design and development of a self-supported polymer electrolyte fuel cell system with anodic dead-end operation

Manokaran, A and Jalajakshi, A and Sahu, AK and Sridhar, P and Pitchumani, S and Shukla, AK (2011) Design and development of a self-supported polymer electrolyte fuel cell system with anodic dead-end operation. In: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers - Part A: Journal of Power and Energy, 225 (A2, Sp). pp. 175-182.

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Abstract

Design and operational details for a self-supported polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) system with anodic dead-end fuel supply and internally humidified cathodic oxidant flow are described. During the PEFC operation, nitrogen and water back diffuse across the Nafion membrane from the cathode to the anode and accumulate in the anode flow channels affecting stack performance. The accumulated inert species are flushed from the stack by purging the fuel cell stack with a timer-activated purge valve to address the aforesaid problem. To minimize the system complexity, stack is designed in such a way that all the inert species accumulate in only one cell called the purge cell. A pulsed purge sequence comprises opening the valve for purge duration followed by purge-valve closing for the hold period and repeating the sequence in cycles. Since self-humidification is inadequate to keep the membrane wet, the anodic dead-end-operated PEFC stack with composite membrane comprising perflourosulphonic acid (Nafion) and silica is employed for keeping the membrane humidified even while operating the stack with dry hydrogen and internally humidified air.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers - Part A: Journal of Power and Energy
Publisher:	Professional Engineering Publishing
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Professional Engineering Publishing.
Keywords:	polymer electrolyte fuel cell;dead-end;self-supported;purge sequence;composite membrane;self-humidification
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit
Date Deposited:	20 Apr 2011 04:55
Last Modified:	20 Apr 2011 04:55
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/36724

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