• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.527-535
• /
• 2017

Heat management is one of the most critical issues in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) installed inside the fuel cell power pack of a fuel cell battery hybrid UPS. If the heat generated by the chemical reaction in the fuel cell is not rapidly removed, the durability and performance of the fuel cell may be affected, which may shorten its lifetime. Therefore, the objective of this study is to select and propose a proper cooling method for the fuel cells used in the fuel cell power pack of a UPS. In order to find the most appropriate cooling method, the various design factors affecting the cooling performance were studied. The numerical analysis was performed by a commercial program, i.e., COMSOL Multiphysics. Firstly, the surface temperature of the 1 kW class fuel cell stack with the cooling fans placed at the top was compared with the one with the cooling fans placed at the bottom. Various rotation speeds of the cooling fan, viz. 2,500, 3,000, 3,500, and 4,000 RPM, were tested to determine the proper cooling fan speed. In addition, the influence of the inhaled air flow rate was investigated by changing the porous area of the grille, which is the entrance of the air flowing from the outside to the inside of the power pack. As a result, it was found that for the operating conditions of the 1 kW class PEMFC to be acceptable, the cooling fan was required to have a minimum rotating speed of 3500 RPM to maintain the fuel cell surface temperature within an acceptable range. The results of this study can be effectively applied to the development of thermal management technology for the fuel cells inside the fuel cell power pack of a UPS.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.57 no.4
• /
• pp.507-511
• /
• 2019

Hydrogen permeability is widely used to evaluate the polymer membrane durability of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFC). Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) is mainly used to measure hydrogen permeability easily. There are many differences in LSV measurement method among researchers, and it is often difficult to compare the results. Therefore, in this study, we tried to confirm the accuracy by comparing the hydrogen permeability of LSV method and gas chromatograph which is difficult to measure but accurate value. The LSV method used the DOE and NEDO methods. When the hydrogen permeability was measured by varying the temperature and the relative humidity, the DOE LSV method showed an accuracy of less than 5% in the error range compared with the GC method. In the NEDO LSV method, the error was reduced when the hydrogen permeation current density was determined at the current value of 0.3 V as the DOE method.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.99-103
• /
• 2007

Pt/Nafion self-humidifying membranes for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) were synthesized via a supercritical-impregnation method. The Nafion 112 membranes were impregnated with Pt(II) acetylacetonate from a supercritical carbon dioxide ($scCO_2$) solution at $80^{\circ}C$ and 19.8 MPa. After the impregnation, the Pt-impregnated Nafion membrane was converted Pt deposited Nafion(Pt/Nafion) membrane by reducing agent, sodium borohydride ($NaBH_4$) under $50^{\circ}C$ and 2 hours. The prepared Pt/Nafion membranes were investigated by SEM, EDS and EPMA. The performance of the Pt/Nafion membranes was examined in PEMFC as a self-humidifying membrane. The cell performance of the Pt/Nafion membrane at $65^{\circ}C$ is better than that of Nafion 112.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
• /
• v.19 no.5
• /
• pp.403-409
• /
• 2008

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is very interesting power source due to high power density, simple construction and operation at low temperature. But it has problems such as high cost, improvement of performance, effect of temperature and initial start at low temperature. These problems can be approached to be solved by using experiment and mathematical method which are general principles for analysis and optimization of control system for heat and hydrogen detecting management. In this paper, insulation vessel and control system for stable operation of fuel cell at low temperature were developed for experiment. The constant temperature capability and the heating time at sub-zero temperatures with insulation control system were studied by using a heating bar of 60W class. PEMFC stack which was made by 4 cells with $50\;mc^2$ active area in each cell is a thermal source. Times which take to reach constant temperature by the state of insulation vacuum were measured at variable environment temperatures. The test was performed at two conditions: heating mode and cooling mode. Constant temperature capability was better at lower environment temperature and vacuum pressure. The results of this experiment could be used as basis data about stable operation of fuel cell stack in low temperature zone.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.276-283
• /
• 2020

Alcohol-based solvents including ethanol (EtOH) and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) are investigated instead of isopropanol (IPA), which is a common solvent for polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), as an alternative solvent for preparing the catalyst slurry with PTFE binder. As a result, the performance at 0.2 A/㎠ from the single cells from using catalyst slurries based on EtOH and TBA showed very similar value to that from the slurry using IPA, which implies the EtOH and TBA can be used as a solvent for the catalyst slurry. It is also confirmed by the very close values of the total resistance of the membrane electrode assemblies from the slurries using different solvents. In the energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) image, the shape of crack and dispersion of PTFE are changed according to the vapor pressure of the solvent.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2011.11a
• /
• pp.87.1-87.1
• /
• 2011

For commercial applications, MEA development must be optimized in order to achieve high performance and low cost. There are many factors that affect the performance of MEA. Especially, the optimization of the method for preparing catalyst layer has great effect on the performance of MEA. Various methods have been used to prepare the catalyst layer of MEA. Among them, spraying method has a merit in that catalysis lay can be prepared with very flexible changes in catalyst layer as well as in the solvent composition of catalyst ink. In addition, in order to reduce the time required for manufacturing catalyst layer, an effort has been made to change the nozzle size and injection pressure of spray system. Further, the operation condition of spray system was changed in various ways in an effort to prepare optimum catalyst layer of MEA. Having optimized the operation condition of spraying system, comprehensive and diverse experiments were carried out concerning various factors that affect the performance of MEA. The present research report describes the results of more sub-categorized and more detailed experiments about the important factors (Nafion$^{(R)}$ ionomer, Relative humidity) which have been shown in previous experiments to exert greater effect on the performance of MEA.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2006.11a
• /
• pp.316-319
• /
• 2006

There is a worldwide interest in the development and commercialization of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) for vehicular and stationary applications. One of the major objectives is the reduction of loaded electrode materials, which is comprise of the Pt-based noble metals. In this paper, a novel chemical strategy is described for the preparation and characterization of carbon-supported and surface-alloys, which were prepared by using a successive reduction process. After preparing Au colloid nanoparticles, the deposition of Au colloid nanoparticles occurred spontaneously in the carbon black-dispersed aqueous solution. Then nano-scaled active materials were formed on the surface of carbon-supported Au nanoparticles. The structural and electrochemical analyses indicate that the active materials were deposited on the surface of Au nanoparticles selectively and that an at toying process occurred during the successive reducing process The carbon-supported & surface-alloys showed the higher electrocatalytic activity than those of the particle-alloys and commercial one (Johnson-Matthey) for the reaction of methanol and formic acid oxidation. The increased electrocatalytic activity might be attributed to the effective surface structure of surface-alloys, which have a high utilization of active materials for the surface reaction of electrode.

• New & Renewable Energy
• /
• v.2 no.4 s.8
• /
• pp.64-69
• /
• 2006

There is a worldwide interest in the development and commercialization of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells [PEMFCs] for vehicular and stationary applications. One of the major objectives is the reduction of loaded electrode materials, which is comprise of the Pt-based noble metals. In this paper, a novel chemical strategy is described for the preparation and characterization of carbon-supported and surface-alloys, which were prepared by using a successive reduction process. After preparing Au colloid nanoparticles, the supporting of Au colloid nanoparticles occurred spontaneously in the carbon black-dispersed aqueous solution. Then nano-scaled active materials were formed on the surface of carbon-supported Au nanoparticles. The structural and electrochemical analyses indicate that the active materials were deposited on the surface of Au nanoparticles selectively and that an alloying process occurred during the successive reducing process. The carbon-supported & surface-alloys showed the higher electrocatalytic activity than those of the particle-alloys and commercial one [Johnson-Matthey] for the reaction of methanol and formic acid oxidation. The increased electrocatalytic activity might be attributed to the effective surface structure of surface-alloys, which have a high utilization of active materials for the surface reaction of electrode.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.69-76
• /
• 2011

PEMFC (polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell) is device that generates electricity from hydrogen. It is one of the subjects related to renewable energy and various research has been conducted on the PEMFC. PEMFC has low operating temperature and high efficiency among fuel cells, and is given attention as means for automobile and domestic use. Analysis of flow field pattern in supplying hydrogen and oxygen is part of the research to increase PEMFC efficiency. In this study, separation plate currently used in PEMFC is transformed to wave shape and mass transfer characteristics in the channel is examined through numerical and experimental analysis. Wave shape separation plate yielded 18% increase of efficiency compared to separation plate used in normal channel. And improvements in mass transfer characteristics were verified.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.293-299
• /
• 2012

The serpentine flow channel is widely used in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) to prevent flooding phenomena because it effectively removes liquid water in the flow channel. The pressure drop between inlet and outlet increases as compared with straight channels due to minor losses associated with the corners of the turning configurations. This results in a strong pressure gradient between adjacent channels in specific regions, where some amount of reactant gas can be delivered to catalyst layers by convection through a gas diffusion layer (GDL). The enhancement of the convective flow in the GDL, so-called bypass flow, affects fuel cell performance since the bypass flow influences the reactant transport and thus its concentration over the active area. In the present paper, for the bipolar plate design, a simple analytic model has been proposed to predict the bypass flow in the serpentine type flow channels and validated with three-dimensional numerical simulation results.