Abstract
Air supply is required to the cathode of fuel cells for the provision of oxygen to produce electricity through chemical reaction with hydrogen in the cell, and supplied air should be free of impurities such as oil mist and tiny particles separated from sliding surfaces. Hence, air compressor for fuel cell air supply must be oil-less type and have no severe sliding surfaces inside. This paper introduces the concept of single-vane type rotary air compressor whose structure is particularly suitable for the fuel cell application: sliding action of the vane against the cylinder wall, which causes severe friction in the conventional vane rotary compressors, is made to be prevented by attaching the vane to the driving shaft with the compliant device between the vane and the rotor in this new design. For 2 kW fuel cell application, preliminary design has been carried out, and its performance has been estimated by using computer simulation program: for discharge pressure of 2 bar, the volumetric, adiabatic, and mechanical efficiencies are calculated to be 82.5%, 92.5%, and 96.3%, respectively.
