• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.3423-3428
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• 2007

This paper shows that inlet humidity condition at cathode side is one of dominant parameters affecting the performance of PEMFC. To investigate effects of inlet humidity condition, the performance measurements were conducted for a single PEMFC with two operating variables : cathode relative humidity and dry condition in anode dry. The fuel cell employed for the experiments is a unit PEMFC with a 25$Cm^2$, Nafion$^(R)$112 membrane. As a result of this study, the cell performance is getting higher by increasing inlet humidity condition at cathode side. The cell performance is different from each operating temperature an it has maximum30% higher than dry condition at 60$^{\circ}C$ operating temperature with 80% relative humidity.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.30 no.12 s.255
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• pp.1228-1235
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• 2006

PEMFC(Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) is a low temperature fuel cell and has many probabilities of commercial use. However, water management is one of the serious technical problems for commercialization. It is necessary to understand the relationship between operation conditions and water behavior in PEMFC channel because it affects fuel cell performance. In this paper, the distribution of current density according to inlet humidity condition is mainly observed and discussed. If the anode inlet is well humidified, electro-osmotic drag is very active. For this reason, current density is very high at inlet side and the distribution is non-uniform.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.732-740
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• 2019

Evaporative humidification using a humidifying element is widely used for humidification of a building or a data center. The performance of a humidifying element is commonly expressed as humidification efficiency, which is used independent of air temperature, humidity and water temperature. In this study, a series of tests were conducted at two air conditions (data center and commercial building) using two different humidifying elements (cellulose/PET and Glasdek) changing the frontal air velocity and water temperature. Results showed that the measured humidification efficiency was dependent on the air condition and water temperature. In fact, even dehumidification occurred at the inlet of the humidifying element at the air condition of commercial building. The reason was due to the inlet water temperature, which was lower than the dew point air temperature. As the difference between the inlet water and the dew point air temperature increased, the humidification efficiency decreased. This suggest that proper thermal model should account for the inlet region, where the amount of moisture transfer may be different from the other part of the humidification element. A simple analysis on the thermal performance of the cellulose/PET humidification element showed that the Sherwood number was adequately predicted, whereas the friction factor was ovepredicted, probably due to the simplification of the channel geometry and the neglection of the water film on the element surface.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.326-331
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• 2018

Evaporative humidification using a humidifying element is used widely for the humidification of a building or a data center. The performance of a humidifying element is commonly expressed as the humidification efficiency, which is assumed to be independent of the air temperature or humidity. To verify this assumption, a series of tests were conducted under two air conditions - data center ($25^{\circ}C$ DBT, $15^{\circ}C$ WBT) and commercial building ($35^{\circ}C$ DBT, $21^{\circ}C$ WBT) - using humidifying elements made from cellulose/PET and changing the frontal air velocity from 1.0 m/s to 4.5 m/s. Three samples having a 100 mm, 200 mm, or 300 mm depth were tested. The results showed that the humidification efficiency is dependent on the air condition. Indeed, even dehumidification occurred at the inlet of the humidifying element at the air condition of commercial building. This suggests that a proper thermal model should account for the inlet area, where the amount of moisture transfer may be different from the other part of the humidification element. As the depth of the element increased from 100 mm to 200 mm, the humidification efficiency increased by 29%. With further increases to 300 mm, it increased by 42%. On the other hand, the pressure drop also increased by 47% and 86%.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.14-16
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• 2008

자동차 구동용 연료전지 스택에 적용된 분리판에 대하여 연료전지 내부의 수분분포 및 농도를 측정할 수 있는 중성자 가시화 기법을 이용하여 구조진단을 실시하여 유로의 분기부 및 180도 회전부의 수분 응축과 같은 국부적인 Flooding 현상과 분리판의 반응면적 전체에 대한 불균일한 수분분포를 확인하였다. 신규 개발 스택에 적용된 분리판은 이러한 구조진단 결과를 바탕으로 변형된 유로 도입을 통한 180도 회전부 제거, 냉각수 입구와 인접한 부분에서 교차하게 되는 수소 출구 부분의 수분응축에 의한 Flooding 현상을 완화하기 위한 냉각수 유로를 적용하여 중성자 가시화 기법을 통하여 동일한 가습조건에서 부하에 따른 분리판 반응면적 전체에 대한 수분분포를 조사하였다.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.815-821
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• 2013

The efficiency and lifetime of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system is critically affected by the humidity of the incoming gas, which should be maintained properly under normal operating conditions. Typically, the incoming gas of a fuel cell is humidified by an external humidifier, but few studies have reported on the device characteristics. In this study, a laboratory-scale planar membrane humidifier is designed to investigate the characteristics of water transport through a hydrophilic membrane. The planar membrane humidifier is immersed in a constant temperature bath to isolate the humidifier from the effect of temperature variations. The mass transfer capability of the hydrophilic membrane is first examined under isothermal conditions. Then, the mass transfer capability is investigated under various conditions. The results show that water transport in the hydrophilic membrane is significantly affected by the flow rate, operating temperature, operating pressure, and flow arrangement.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.25-30
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• 2007

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) performance could be affected by various factors such as cell temperature, total pressure, partial pressure of reactants and relative humidity. Hydrogen ion is combined with water to form hydronium ion [$H_3O^+$] and pass through membrane resulting electricity generation. Cooling system is needed to remove heat and other uses on large scale fuel cell. In case that collant conductivity is increased, fuel cell performance could be decreased because produced electricity could be leaked through coolant. In this study, triple distilled water(TDW) and antifreeze solution containing ethylene glycol was used to observe resistance change. Resistance of TDW was taken 28 days to reach preset value, and effect on fuel cell operation was not observed. Resistance of antifreeze solution was not reached to preset value up to 48 days, but performance failure occurred presumably caused by bipolar plate junction resulting stoppage resistance experiment. Generally PEMFC humidification is performed near-saturated operating conditions at various temperatures and pressures, but non-humidifying condition could be applied in small scale fuel cell to improve efficiency and reduce system cost. However, it was difficult to operate large scale fuel cell without humidifying, especially higher than $50{\sim}60^{\circ}C$. In case of small flux such as 0.78 L/min, temperature difference between inlet and outlet was occurred larger than other cases resulting performance decrease. Non-humidifying performance experiments were done at various cell temperature. When both of anode and cathode humidification were removed, cell performance was strongly depended on cell operating temperature.