• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.4 no.1 s.9
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• pp.40-48
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• 2000

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device continuously converting the chemical energy in a fuel and an oxidant to electrical energy by going through an essentially invariant electrode-electrolyte system. Phosphoric acid fuel cell employs concentrated phosphoric acid as an electrolyte. The cell stack in the fuel cell, which is the most important part of the fuel cell system, is made up of anode where oxidation of the fuel occurs cathode where reduction of the oxidant occurs; and electrolyte, to separate the anode and cathode and to conduct the ions between them. Fuel cell performance is associated with many parameters such as operating and design parameters associated with the system configuration. In order to understand the design concepts of the phosphoric fuel cell and predict it's performance, we have here introduced the simulation of the fuel-cell stack which is core component and modeled in a 3-dimensional grid space. The concentration of reactants and products, and the temperature distributions according to the flow rates of an oxidant are computed by the help of a computational fluid dynamic code, i.e., FLUENT.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.146-151
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• 2001

Several design parameters for a 100 kW molten carbonate fuel cell stack was described. Approximately 170 cells are required to generate 100 kW at a current density of $125\;mA/cm^{2}$ with $6000\;cm^{2}$ cells. An overall heat balance was calculated to predict exit temperature. In order to limit the stack temperature in the range of $600-700^{\circ}C$, current load cannot exceed $75\;mA/cm^{2}$ at atmospheric operation. The 100 kW power is expected only under pressurization. Recycle of cathode gas by more than 50% is recommended to run the stack at $125\;mA/cm^{2}$ and 3 atm. Manifolds should be designed based on gas flow rates for the suggested operating condition.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.127-136
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• 2023

In this study, the electrochemical performance of a 5-layer fuel cell stack using silica composite membranes as polymer electrolyte membranes was evaluated. It was observed that the flow rate of the fuel gases plays a crucial role in stack performance, particularly being mainly dependent on the flow rate of hydrogen. Increasing the flow rate of oxygen resulted in negligible changes in performance, whereas an increase in the flow rate of hydrogen demonstrated performance improvements. However, this led to an imbalance in the ratio of hydrogen to oxygen flow rates, causing significant degradation in stack performance and durability. A decline in stack performance was also observed over time due to the degradation of stack components. This phenomenon was consistently observed in individual unit cells. Based on these findings, it was emphasized that, in addition to optimizing the performance of each component during stack operation, it is important to optimize design and operating conditions for uniform flow rate control. Lastly, the developed silica composite membrane was assessed to have sufficient performance for application in actual fuel cell systems, exhibiting a performance of over 25 W based on maximum power.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.739-744
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• 2012

This paper describes the blower performance used for single-stage high pressure regenerative blower. The blower considered is widely applied to the field of a fuel cell system, a medical equipment and a sewage treatment plant. Flow rate and rotating frequency of a impeller of the blower are considered as design parameters for the proper operation of the blower. Three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations are introduced to analyze the performance and internal flow of the blower. Relatively good agreement between experimental measurements and numerical simulation is obtained. Throughout a numerical simulation, it is found that small and stable vortical flow generated inside the blade passage is effective to increase pressure and efficiency of the blower. Large local recirculation flow having low velocity in the blade passage obstructs the generation of stable vortical flow, thus increases the pressure loss of the blower. Detailed flow field inside the blower is also analyzed and discussed.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 2009

PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) is a low temperature fuel cells which are high efficient and clean energy. But it has many problems like economical efficiency or durability. Because of this reason, many researchers challenge various view points. One of challenge is the flow channel design and many researchers develop new flow channel design. In addition to most of them have the anode and cathode's flow channel overlapped almost perfectly. In this case, the electrochemical reaction is almost done by the inertial force of flow. So we study on the effect of the anode and cathode's flow channel which aren't overlapped perfectly, have more diffusion effect, to PEMFC performance using CFD.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.175-186
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• 2004

In this paper, we developed the dynamic model of a fuel cell system suitable for controller design and system operation. The transient phenomena captured in the model include the flow characteristics and inertia dynamics of the compressor, the intake manifold filling dynamics, oxygen partial pressures and membrane humidity on the fuel cell voltage. In the simulations, we paid attention to the transient behavior of stack voltage and compressor pressure, stoichiometric ratio. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the model capability. For load current following, stack voltage dynamic characteristics are plotted to understand the Electro-chemistry involved with the fuel cell system. Compressor pressure and stoichiometric ratio are strongly coupled, and independent parameters may interfere with each other, dynamic response, undershoot and overshoot.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.834-839
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• 2009

A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is performed to investigate flow characteristics in the anode channels and manifold of the internal reforming type molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC). Considering the computational difficulties associated with the size and geometric complexity of the MCFC system, the polyhedral meshes that can reduce mesh connectivity problems at the intersection of the channel and the manifold are adopted and chemical reactions inside the MCFC system are not included. Through this study, the gas flow rate uniformity of the anode channels is mainly analyzed to provide basic insights into improved design parameters for anode flow channel design. Results indicate that the uniformity in flow-rate is in the range of ${\pm}$1% between the anode channels. Also, the mal-distributed inlet flow-rate conditions and the change in the size of the manifold depth have no significant effect on the flow-rate uniformity of the anode channels.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.3120-3124
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• 2008

A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is performed to investigate flow characteristics in the anode channels and manifold of the internal reforming type molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC). Considering the computational difficulties associated with the size and geometric complexity of the MCFC system, the polyhedral meshes that can reduce mesh connectivity problems at the intersection of the channel and the manifold are adopted and chemical reactions inside the MCFC system are not included. Through this study, the gas flow rate uniformity of the anode channels is mainly analyzed to provide basic insights into improved design parameters for anode flow channel design. Results indicate that the uniformity in flow-rate is in the range of ${\pm}1%$ between the anode channels. Also, the mal-distributed inlet flow-rate conditions and the change in the size of the manifold depth have no significant effect on the flow-rate uniformity of the anode channels.

• Clean Technology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.229-234
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• 2015

Recently, there are increasing numbers of study regarding hydrogen fuels but researches on desulfurization of diesel are rare. In this study, we performed diesel desulfurization reactor design by computation fluid dynamics simulation. By analyzing the change in flow and sulfur concentration at the outlet according to the changes in flow rate, reactor length, and reactor diameter, we have found the minimum catalyst performance for the given flow rate condition and the relation between the reactor performance and the reactor size and shape. We also studied the effects of permeability of the packed bed on the flow and sulfur concentration distribution. The present work can be utilized to design a diesel desulfurization reactor for a fuel cell used in ships. Furthermore, the present work also can be used to design low sulfur diesel supply in oil refineries and therefore contribute to the development of clean petrochemical technology.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.105-108
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• 2006

The fuel cell is one of the promising environment-friendly energy sources for the next generation. The fuel cell provides good energy efficiency above 40% without pollution or noise. Different fuel cell types are usually distinguished by the kind of electrolyte. Among these, the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has advantages of high power density. low operating temperature, relatively quick start-up, and rapid response to varying loads. The bipolar plate is a major component of the PEM fuel cell stack, and it takes a large portion of stack volume, weight and cost. In this study, as alternative materials for bipolar plate of PEM fuel cells, graphite composites were fabricated by compression molding and by machining. Graphite particles mixed with epoxy resin were used as the main substance to provide electric conductivity. Flow channels were fabricated by compression molding with design of experiments (DOE) to evaluate moldability. The cost for compression molding of graphite-composite bipolar plate was compared with machining cost to make the same bipolar plate.