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PEM Power Density Optimization Based on Non-Uniform Catalyst Distribution

Ebrahimi, Sasan | 2013

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 45361 (46)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Energy Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Roshandel, Ramin
  7. Abstract:
  8. In many previous Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) models,the catalyst distribution in Catalyst Layer (CL) was assumed to be uniform and there are just a few models which consider variation of catalyst loading across the CL. In this research, a half-cell PEMFC cathode model is applied to investigate the effect of catalyst loading in CL plane under the land and channels of bipolar plates. In addition, the agglomerate model which has been shown to be more complete representation of the fuel cell CL is used. It is necessary to mention, in many previous PEMFC models, the catalyst layer was treated as a pseudohomogenous layer. In both models, the micro structure of CL and its effect is neglected. in this work, by using agglomerate model and finite volume method, mass and charge transport equations are solved simultaneously and as a result, a two dimensional numerical model is developed. Then the optimum distribution of catalyst effective area is obtained by combining CFD model and downhill simplex optimization procedure. In this novel algorithm the optimum catalyst is assumed as polynomial functions and the parameters of these functions are obtained by using iterative method. In optimum case, the maximum power density is increased about 7% which is noticeable improvement in PEMFC models. This shows that by using constant amount of catalyst the maximum power density can be improved and it is an important step toward the commercialization of PEMFC
  9. Keywords:
  10. Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM)Fuel Cell Catalyst Layer ; Nonuniform Catalyst Layers ; Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) ; Cathodes ; Downhill Simplex Method ; Catalyst Effective Area Optimization

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