PEM fuel cells, modeling

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Secanell, Marc
  • Jarauta, Alex
  • Kosakian, Aslan
  • Sabharwal, Mayank
  • Zhou, Jie Jeremy

• Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) operation involves multiphase mass, charge, and heat transport, complex electrochemical reactions, and physical processes that occur at multiple spatial and time scales, e.g., from double-layer effects occurring in milliseconds to catalyst degradation which becomes only significant after many hours of operation. PEMFC design is therefore a complex endeavor that requires the optimization of a multitude of objectives, such as minimizing cost and maximizing specific current density, efficiency, and durability, by modifying a large design data set that includes the geometry, composition, and microstructure of each of the components that form the cell. In order to achieve an optimal design, multidisciplinary computational design and optimization is required. The heart of numerical design and optimization is a numerical model of the system under study, in this case a numerical model of the PEMFC. Mathematical and numerical modeling of PEMFCs is therefore critical in order to understand the physical and chemical processes occurring inside the fuel cell and to design a PEMFC system that can meet current targets for PEMFC commercialization.

• Date created

  2017-01-01

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Ohmic transport losses
  • Catalyst layers (CLs)
  • Numerical modeling
  • Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs)
  • Open-source fuel cell software
  • Mathematical modeling
  • Proton exchange membranes (PEM)
  • Kinetic losses
  • Gas diffusion layers (GDL)
  • Mass transport losses

• Type of Item

  Chapter

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-86yz-q927

• License

  © Springer Science+Business Media LLC 2017