Structure Design for Ultrahigh Power Density Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Guobin Zhang; Lizhen Wu; Chasen Tongsh; Zhiguo Qu; Siyuan Wu; Biao Xie; Wenming Huo; Qing Du; Huizhi Wang; Liang An; Ning Wang; Jin Xuan; Wenmiao Chen; Fuqiang Xi; Zhixin Wang; Kui Jiao

doi:10.1002/smtd.202201537

Structure Design for Ultrahigh Power Density Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Small Methods. 2023 Mar;7(3):e2201537. doi: 10.1002/smtd.202201537. Epub 2023 Jan 6.

Authors

Guobin Zhang^{1

2}, Lizhen Wu¹, Chasen Tongsh¹, Zhiguo Qu², Siyuan Wu³, Biao Xie¹, Wenming Huo¹, Qing Du¹, Huizhi Wang⁴, Liang An⁵, Ning Wang², Jin Xuan⁶, Wenmiao Chen⁷, Fuqiang Xi⁷, Zhixin Wang⁷, Kui Jiao^{1

8}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Engines, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350, China.
² MOE Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, China.
³ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
⁵ Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁶ Department of Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK.
⁷ Weichai Power Co. Ltd. , Weifang, 261016, China.
⁸ National Industry-Education Platform of Energy Storage, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350, China.

PMID: 36609816
DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202201537

Abstract

Next-generation ultrahigh power density proton exchange membrane fuel cells rely not only on high-performance membrane electrode assembly (MEA) but also on an optimal cell structure. To this end, this work comprehensively investigates the cell performance under various structures, and it is revealed that there is unexploited performance improvement in structure design because its positive effect enhancing gas supply is often inhibited by worse proton/electron conduction. Utilizing fine channel/rib or the porous flow field is feasible to eliminate the gas diffusion layer (GDL) and hence increase the power density significantly due to the decrease of cell thickness and gas/electron transfer resistances. The cell structure combining fine channel/rib, GDL elimination and double-cell structure is believed to increase the power density from 4.4 to 6.52 kW L^-1 with the existing MEA, showing nearly equal importance with the new MEA development in achieving the target of 9.0 kW L^-1 .

Keywords: double-cell structures; integrated BP-GDL structures; porous flow fields; power density; proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

Abstract

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