Fuel CellsPub Date : 2022-11-27DOI: 10.1002/fuce.202200064
M. Koprek, R. Schlumberger, C. Wachtel, F. Wilhelm, M. Messerschmidt, J. Scholta, M. Hölzle
{"title":"Local ageing effects of polymer electrolyte fuel cell membrane electrode assemblies due to accelerated durability testing","authors":"M. Koprek, R. Schlumberger, C. Wachtel, F. Wilhelm, M. Messerschmidt, J. Scholta, M. Hölzle","doi":"10.1002/fuce.202200064","DOIUrl":"10.1002/fuce.202200064","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Accelerated durability test (ADT) protocols are useful tools to reduce testing time and development costs of automotive polymer electrolyte fuel cell stacks. Established accelerated stress tests allow comparing individual cell components. However, such tests in general do not allow drawing reliable conclusions on the expected lifetime for a complete stack. In this work, we examine the influence of combined stressors on the ageing behavior of individual cell components operated on stack level. We combine known main stressors for mobile fuel-cell operation such as dynamic load, temperature and humidity cycling or hydrogen/air fronts during start-up to develop a new accelerated test protocol. It was applied to an automotive 5-cell short stack for 460 operating hours (OpH). A second stack was operated in a reference long-term test for 2300 OpH. Several in situ characterization techniques, such as cyclic voltammetry, and recording the local current density distribution were employed. In addition, post-mortem analyses, such as focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy imaging, was applied in order to better understand the degradation mechanisms. The results presented here provide an excellent basis for the further development of a new ADT protocol, which will accelerate ageing processes in the fuel cell in a realistic way, i.e. leading to similar degradation characteristics as in long term testing.</p>","PeriodicalId":12566,"journal":{"name":"Fuel Cells","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44170591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fuel CellsPub Date : 2022-11-27DOI: 10.1002/fuce.202200087
Xiaolu Zhang PhD, Xinwei Wang BSc, Qiubo Wang BSc, Peijin Yu BSc, Yang Miao PhD, Xulei Hou BSc, Ziming Zhao BSc, Yuejuan Li PhD
{"title":"The effect of hydrogen leakage positions and leak flow rate on its dispersion in a small fuel cell bus","authors":"Xiaolu Zhang PhD, Xinwei Wang BSc, Qiubo Wang BSc, Peijin Yu BSc, Yang Miao PhD, Xulei Hou BSc, Ziming Zhao BSc, Yuejuan Li PhD","doi":"10.1002/fuce.202200087","DOIUrl":"10.1002/fuce.202200087","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Studies on hydrogen leakage mainly have focused on the influences of the leakage locations and geometrical configurations on the distribution of hydrogen in various spaces. In this study, a simplified model was developed to examine the diffusion of the hydrogen leaked into a small fuel cell bus with seats. The impact of leakage positions and leak flow rate on the dispersion of hydrogen in a cuboid ventilation space (with dimensions L x W x H = 5 m × 2 m × 2 m) was investigated, and concentrations of hydrogen in the vicinity of the corner at the ceiling were of particular interest. It was shown the peak average concentration at the ceiling increased with increasing the leak flow rate. However, the duration from the appearance to the disappearance of the combustible hydrogen-air mixture decreased with the increase of the leak flow rate. This study highlights the importance of leakage positions and demonstrates that the dispersion of hydrogen is faster for leakage in the horizontal direction. The proposed approach is useful for improving the design of the arrangement of hydrogen storage tanks to eliminate consequent accidents or minimize the harmful impacts during an accident.</p>","PeriodicalId":12566,"journal":{"name":"Fuel Cells","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41248952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fuel CellsPub Date : 2022-11-24DOI: 10.1002/fuce.202200068
Ulrich Rost, Florian Josef Wirkert, Jeffrey Roth, Michael Brodmann, Svenja Stiber, Aldo Saul Gago, Kaspar Andreas Friedrich
{"title":"A novel advanced test system for polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysis based on hydraulic cell compression","authors":"Ulrich Rost, Florian Josef Wirkert, Jeffrey Roth, Michael Brodmann, Svenja Stiber, Aldo Saul Gago, Kaspar Andreas Friedrich","doi":"10.1002/fuce.202200068","DOIUrl":"10.1002/fuce.202200068","url":null,"abstract":"In this work, a novel polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolyzer (PEMWE) test cell based on hydraulic single‐cell compression is described. In this test cell, the current density distribution is almost homogeneous over the active cell area due to hydraulic cell clamping. As the hydraulic medium entirely surrounds the active cell components, it is also used to control cell temperature resulting in even temperature distribution. The PEMWE single‐cell test system based on hydraulic compression offers a 25 cm2 active surface area (5.0 × 5.0 cm) and can be operated up to 80°C and 6.0 A/cm2. Construction details and material selection for the designed test cell are given in this document. Furthermore, findings related to pressure distribution analyzed by utilizing a pressure‐sensitive foil, the cell performance indicated by polarization curves, and the reproducibility of results are described. Experimental data indicate the applicability of the presented testing device for relevant PEMWE component testing and material analysis.","PeriodicalId":12566,"journal":{"name":"Fuel Cells","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fuce.202200068","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43958439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Effect on percolation threshold of catalytic layer: Pt/N-Doped graphene shell onto SWCNT for ORR electrode","authors":"Duangkamol Dechojarassri PhD, Xiaoyang Wang PhD, Sangwoo Chae PhD, Yasuyuki Sawada PhD, Takeshi Hashimoto BSc, Nagahiro Saito PhD","doi":"10.1002/fuce.202200020","DOIUrl":"10.1002/fuce.202200020","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A high-rate oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is necessary for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). In this work, by using a solution plasma technique, Pt catalytic particles coated with N-doped graphene (Pt-NG) were effectively produced at 25°C. According to transmission electron microscope images, the average diameter of Pt particles was 4 nm, while the graphene layer thickness was less than 1 nm. A catalytic layer of Pt-NG supported on single-walled carbon nanotubes (Pt-NG/SWCNT) was synthesized. Cyclic voltammetry was used to assess the ORR characteristics of Pt-NG/SWCNT catalytic layers. Only at a density of SWCNT to solvent ratio of 0.75 mg ml<sup>−1</sup> were the ORR peaks clearly visible. Because of the high resistivity of SWCNT layers, the ORR peaks in other ranges, 0.4 mg ml<sup>−1</sup> to 2.0 mg ml<sup>−1</sup>, were not clearly observed. The effect of SWCNT concentration on conductivity was proven to follow the basic concept of the percolation threshold.</p>","PeriodicalId":12566,"journal":{"name":"Fuel Cells","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41883739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fuel CellsPub Date : 2022-11-04DOI: 10.1002/fuce.202200151
Zhu Zhou MSc, Lei Xing PhD, Vijay Venkatesan PhD, Haoran Xu PhD, Wenhua Chen PhD, Jin Xuan PhD
{"title":"Novel porous electrode designs for reversible solid oxide hydrogen planar cell through multi-physics modeling","authors":"Zhu Zhou MSc, Lei Xing PhD, Vijay Venkatesan PhD, Haoran Xu PhD, Wenhua Chen PhD, Jin Xuan PhD","doi":"10.1002/fuce.202200151","DOIUrl":"10.1002/fuce.202200151","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A comprehensive multiphysics 3D model of an anode-supported planar reversible solid oxide cell (rSOC) with a half-channel-unit-cell geometry is created and validated. The physical phenomena that are modeled include reversible electrochemistry/charge transport, coupled with momentum/mass/heat transport. Several electrode microstructures comprising the homogeneous and functionally graded porosity distributions are applied to the validated model, to evaluate and compare the current-voltage (j-V) performance in both fuel cell mode and electrolysis mode. The results indicate that increasing the porosity in a homogeneous porous electrode does not always promote the cell's j-V performance. An optimal porosity emerges where the effect of porosity on the mass transport is maximized, which ranges between 0.5 and 0.7 in the working conditions of the present study. Compared with homogeneous porous electrodes, the heterogeneous porous electrode design with a functionally graded porosity distribution is found to be a potential option to better the overall j-V performance of the rSOC. Furthermore, it is discovered that theoretically grading the porosity in the width direction (i.e., increasing porosity from the center of each gas channel to the center of each adjacent rib) brings an outsize benefit on the cell's performance, compared to the traditional way of improving the porosity along the cell thickness direction.</p>","PeriodicalId":12566,"journal":{"name":"Fuel Cells","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fuce.202200151","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43895019","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fuel CellsPub Date : 2022-10-25DOI: 10.1002/fuce.2022701051
{"title":"Cover Fuel Cells 5/2022","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/fuce.2022701051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/fuce.2022701051","url":null,"abstract":"<p><i>Fuel Cells – From Fundamentals to Systems</i> publishes on all aspects of fuel cells, ranging from their molecular basis including theory and with molecular processes at catalyst surfaces and microscopic processes in membranes to their application in systems such as power plants, road vehicles and power sources in portables. It includes electrochemical energy technology as in energy conversion and storage with batteries, supercapacitors and electrolytic processes. <i>Fuel Cells</i> is a platform for scientific exchange in a diverse interdisciplinary field. All related work in chemistry, physics, materials science, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering is included.\u0000\u0000 <figure>\u0000 <div><picture>\u0000 <source></source></picture><p></p>\u0000 </div>\u0000 </figure></p>","PeriodicalId":12566,"journal":{"name":"Fuel Cells","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fuce.2022701051","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138160282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fuel CellsPub Date : 2022-10-17DOI: 10.1002/fuce.202200030
Decio Filipe Alves-Lima, Bryan M. Williams, Harald Schlegl, Gaurav Gupta, Rosa Letizia, Richard Dawson, Hungyen Lin
{"title":"Visualizing water inside an operating proton exchange membrane fuel cell with video-rate terahertz imaging","authors":"Decio Filipe Alves-Lima, Bryan M. Williams, Harald Schlegl, Gaurav Gupta, Rosa Letizia, Richard Dawson, Hungyen Lin","doi":"10.1002/fuce.202200030","DOIUrl":"10.1002/fuce.202200030","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Successful\u0000water management is critical to achieving high performance in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The relatively high sensitivity of terahertz radiation to liquid water is promising as a complementary alternative for flooding detection in PEMFCs. Using a novel, commercially available terahertz source and camera, this paper investigates the feasibility of a compact and low-cost terahertz imaging system for visualizing water build-up inside an operating PEMFC, supported by simultaneous high-resolution optical imaging. Several phenomena of water accumulation and transport, such as membrane hydration, main droplet appearance, water pool formation, growth, and eventual flush out by gases are imaged by terahertz imaging. These results agree with optical imaging and cell voltage readings. The proposed setup is also able to distinguish the effect of different air flow rates.</p>","PeriodicalId":12566,"journal":{"name":"Fuel Cells","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/fuce.202200030","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46294514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fuel CellsPub Date : 2022-10-17DOI: 10.1002/fuce.202200105
Mustafa İnci, Mehmet Büyük, Necdet Sinan Özbek
{"title":"Sliding mode control for fuel cell supported battery charger in vehicle-to-vehicle interaction","authors":"Mustafa İnci, Mehmet Büyük, Necdet Sinan Özbek","doi":"10.1002/fuce.202200105","DOIUrl":"10.1002/fuce.202200105","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In typical vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) charging systems, energy transfer is provided from a battery electric vehicle (BEV) to charge the energy storage unit of another BEV. In this study, the utilization of a fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) as an energy provider is purposed to charge the energy storage unit of a BEV in V2V interaction. Since FCEVs are filled with hydrogen, it also eliminates the disadvantages of traditional BEV energy providers, such as a reduction in the amount of stored energy and the need for more time to charge fully. In the designed system, a new plug-in external V2V battery charger topology supported by an FCEV has been proposed to supply electrical energy. In order to control the energy transfer between electric vehicles (EVs), a sliding mode controller is adapted to manage the external converter interface located between vehicles. The designed controller shows improved robustness against the system dynamics uncertainties and disturbances generated by a variety of internal and external causes. In the designed section, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with the maximum operational rating of 75 kW is used as an energy provider to feed consumer loads. The proposed system has been designed and analyzed for several loading situations from 20% to 100% loading and obtained performance results have been compared with a conventional controlled V2V battery charger system. The case studies validate that the proposed V2V charger system gives better results than the conventional controlled FC-supported V2V. The stability and robustness of output electrical waveforms are better for the designed system. In this context, the tracking error of the conventional controller is about 8% larger than that of the designed sliding mode control for dynamic load changes. The sliding mode controller has a faster settling time (approximately 0.12 s) in comparison with the conventional controlled V2V charger system. Also, mean absolute error values verify that the designed sliding mode controller operates smoothly under all cases except load transition compared to the typical control method. As a result, the case studies show that satisfactory results have been obtained for the designed system.</p>","PeriodicalId":12566,"journal":{"name":"Fuel Cells","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48197032","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fuel CellsPub Date : 2022-10-09DOI: 10.1002/fuce.202200086
Changsomba Chang MSc, Pratima Gupta PhD
{"title":"Economical and sustainable microbial peroxide-producing cell utilizing domestic sewage water and its contemporaneous treatment","authors":"Changsomba Chang MSc, Pratima Gupta PhD","doi":"10.1002/fuce.202200086","DOIUrl":"10.1002/fuce.202200086","url":null,"abstract":"<p>To boost growth and global competitiveness, a growing number of industries and sewage treatment plants are making “sustainability” and “cost-effectiveness” key goals in their strategy and vision. This movement is also spreading far beyond the small group of people who recognize as “green”. This is the first study to demonstrate that domestic sewage water can be utilized as anodic feed for the electrochemical production of H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> in the catholyte with simultaneous wastewater treatment in a microbial peroxide-producing cell (MPPC) designed cost-effectively utilizing a variety of catholyte and few electrode materials. The electrochemical output utilizing domestic wastewater resulted in maximum production of 62 mM H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> in a 37-day batch in the MPPC with 50 mM H<sub>2</sub>SO<sub>4</sub> catholyte having a bare activated charcoal electrode. The constantly rising H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> production during the 37-day hydraulic retention time demonstrated the system's sustainability and efficiency in contrast to other reported studies. Cyclic voltammetry analysis of the catholyte with the Fenton process showed excellent redox peaks, indicating its applicability for in-situ pollutant degradation. The MPPCs had an overall 40%–60% and 65%–85% removal efficiency of biochemical oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand. This study shows that a simple MPPC design with no extensive modifications can be efficient at producing H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> and simultaneously treating wastewater.</p>","PeriodicalId":12566,"journal":{"name":"Fuel Cells","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47067999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fuel CellsPub Date : 2022-09-26DOI: 10.1002/fuce.202200096
N. V. Raghavaiah, G. Naga Srinivasulu
{"title":"Analysis and experimental investigation on passive direct methanol fuel cell current collectors with taper cylindrical openings","authors":"N. V. Raghavaiah, G. Naga Srinivasulu","doi":"10.1002/fuce.202200096","DOIUrl":"10.1002/fuce.202200096","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Analysis of buoyancy effect on the evaluation of carbon dioxide gas from passive direct methanol fuel cell current collectors’ (CCs’) openings is carried out. Two types of setups are chosen for the analysis, one with taper cylindrical openings and the other with uniform cylindrical openings. The analysis shows that buoyancy is more effective in taper cylindrical openings due to the accommodation of a larger bubble volume compared to that bubble volume in a uniform cylindrical opening. In this experimental study, SS-316L has been selected as the CC material. During the experiment, it is observed that the CO<sub>2</sub> is getting expelled more easily. The best power density (PD) obtained using taper cylindrical openings at a methanol concentration of 3 M is 7.056 mW cm<sup>−2</sup>, whereas it is 5.219 mW cm<sup>−2</sup> in the case of uniform cylindrical openings at the same 3-M methanol concentration. Hence, the taper cylindrical openings are found to perform better at 3-M concentration than cylindrical openings by 35.19% at its best PD point and further, the weight of the CCs is also reduced leading to gravitational PD improvement. Analysis of charge density over the tapered surface is also carried out.</p>","PeriodicalId":12566,"journal":{"name":"Fuel Cells","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-09-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42940686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}