Numerical analysis of steady state self-humidification performance of PEMFC

External humidification for fuel and oxidant gases of PEMFC makes the system complicated, it is of practical interest to operate PEMFCs through self-humidification. The key to improve PEMFC performance of self-humidification operation is to maintain the polymer electrolyte membrane adequately hydrated. Thus, self-humidifying membrane electrode assembly (MEA) is an effective way. In this paper, a mathematical model of water transport balance was developed to predict water content distribution in proton exchange membrane, and further study the feasibility and stability of self-humidification operation. Numerical analysis illustrated that the membrane was thin enough to satisfy the demand of hydration. In order to maintain the membrane hydrated well and achieve good performance of PEMFC, cell temperature and operating pressure were set 60°C and 0.15 MPa, air stoichiometry was increased to 1.8. Based on these conditions, the performance of PEMFC showed a little difference between self-humidification and full-humidification. But there was a large gap compared to optimized full-humidification. It was applicable for self-humidificaiton to simplify the structure and reduce the cost, mass and complexities of PEMFC. But full humidification cannot be replaced completely. 2013-12-30收到初稿,2014-02-19收到修改稿。 联系人及第一作者:李英(1975—),女,博士,副教授。 基金项目:国家自然科学基金项目(20906007);国家重点基础研究 发展计划项目(2013CB733506)。 Received date: 2013-12-30. Corresponding author: LI Ying, liying@djtu.edu.cn Foundation item: supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (20906007) and the National Basic Research Program of China (2013CB733506). 化 工 学 报 第 65卷 ·1894·