• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.99-102
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• 2006

Optimal flow-field design of bipolar-plates for a commercial class PEM(polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell stack was carried out on the basis of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics(CFD) simulation. A three-dimensional CFD model originally developed by Shimpalee et al., has been utilized for performing large-scale simulation of a single fuel cell consisting of bipolar-plates gas diffusion layers, and a membrane-electrode-assembly(MEA). The CFD model is able to predict the current density, pressure drops, gas velocities, vapor and liquid water contents, temperature distributions, etc. inside a single fuel cell. Depending on simulation results from the CFD modeling of a PEM fuel cell, several flow-fields of bipolar-plates were designed and verified. The final design of the bipolar-plate has been chosen from the simulations and experimental tests and showed the best performance as expected from the simulation results under a normal operating condition. Thus, the CFD simulation approach to design the optimal flow-field of the bipolar-plates was successful. The final design was adopted as the best flow-field to build a commercial scale PEM fuel cell stack, the performance of which shows about 42% higher than that of the older bipolar-plate design.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.90.1-90.1
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• 2010

The design and fabrication of a metallic bipolar plate-gasket assembly for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFCs) is defined. This bipolar plate-gasket assembly was prepared by inserting a previously prepared bipolar plate in the specially designed gasket mold. For this aim, a proprietary fluoro-silicone based rubber was injected directly into the bipolar plate borders. Gaskets obtained like this showed the chemically / physically stable and the good sealibilty in typically operating PEM fuel cell conditions. And also, this bipolar plate-gasket assembly shows lots of advantages with respect to traditional PEMFCs stack assembling systems: useful application to automative stacking due to easy handling, reduced fabrication time, possibility of quality control and failed elements substitution. This bipolar plate-gasket assembly was evaluated in the short fuel cell stack and met the leakage requirement for normal operation both in short-term and in long-term operation. Especially, it was confirmed that this gasket could be applied successfully even in the high pressure FEM fuel cell systems(over 2.0 bar in absolute pressure).

• 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.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.82.2-82.2
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• 2010

The development of bipolar plate having high efficiency and chemical properties has a major impact on fuel cell applications commercialization. Even though graphite bipolar plate has high electric conductivity and chemical resistance, it has demerits about mass production and brittle property for commercialization. Hence, metallic bipolar plate can be substitute for fuel cell bipolar plate. Although its inadequate corrosion behavior under PEMFC environment lead to a deterioration of membrane by dissolved metal ions, metallic bipolar plate for PEMFC is more suitable for automotive and residential power generation system because of its high mechanical strength, low gas permeability and applicability to mass production. Therefore, several types of coating has been applied to prevent corrosion and oxide film growth and to achieve more high durability. This work presents durability of coated metal bipolar plate for low temperature PEMFC which made for fuel cell vehicle. This results showed surface treatment increase long-term durability, even electric conductivity and corrosion resistance.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.331-334
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• 2009

Currently, the bipolar plates are fabricated mainly from graphite materials. However, metal bipolar plate are getting most attractive due to their good feasibility of mass production and low cost. In this study, metal bipolar plates for fuel cell Vehicles were developed with a concept based on the straight flow patterns to minimize the pressure drop and spring back. And molded gasket apply to the bipolar plate for improve sealing performance. Results show that the metal bipolar plate have a high potential to replace for graphite materials in fuel cell application.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.65-71
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• 2014

As an important component of a fuel cell, the bipolar plate comprises a large proportion in the fuel cell's volume, weight and price. The bipolar plate is the most widely used; however, graphite bipolar plate is large in volume, brittle and therefore easily broken during assembling. In addition, due to its poor machinability, production costs a lot, unless mass production. Compared with the graphite bipolar plate, the metal bipolar plate has good machinability, high electric conductivity and strong mechanical strength; however, it corrodes easily and has a high contact resistance, so in order to prevent corrosion and reduce the contact resistance, the basic metal needs to be processed by use of electro polishing and coating. The water which is produced by electrochemical reactions in the fuel cell must be discharged smoothly. In this study, in order to prevent corrosion the processes of electro polishing and CrN coating were used. According to the presence or absence of these processes, the contact angles can be measured and different metal bipolar plates can be made, these plates can be used for comparing and analyzing the performance of the fuel cell.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.134-142
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• 2012

A bipolar plate is a major component of a fuel cell stack, which occupies 50~60% of the total weight and over 50% of the total cost of a typical fuel cell stack. In this study, a composite bipolar plate is designed and fabricated to develop a compact and light-weight direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack for a small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) application. The composite bipolar plates for DMFCs are prepared by a compression molding method using resole type phenol resin as a binder and natural graphite and carbon black as a conductor filler and tested in terms of electrical conductivity, mechanical strength and hydrogen permeability. The flexural strength of 63 MPa and the in-plane electrical conductivities of 191 S $cm^{-1}$ are achieved under the optimum bipolar plate composition of phenol : 18%; natural graphite : 82%; carbon black : 3%, indicating that the composite bipolar plates exhibit sufficient mechanical strength, electrical conductivity and hydrogen permeability to be applied in a DMFC stack. A DMFC with the composite bipolar plate is tested and shows a similar cell performance with a conventional DMFC with graphite-based bipolar plate.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.39-42
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• 2007

Hydrogen fuel cell is clean and efficient technology along with high energy densities. While there are many different types of fuel cells, the proton exchange membrane fuel cell stands out as one of the most promising for transportation and small stationary applications. This paper focuses on design of bipolar plate for proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The bipolar plate model is realistically and accurately simulated velocity distribution, current density distribution and its effect on the PEMFC system using CFD tool FLUENT.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.554-559
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• 2015

Single cell of PEMFC (polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell) is composed of bipolar plates, gasket, GDL and the MEA. Bipolar plate's function is the collecting electricity, helping oxygen/hydrogen gas diffuse evenly and draining the water and heat. In this work, we have conducted experiments to low contact resistance and improve the performance of a $25cm^2$ single cell by using metal forms. We have following experimental cases: 1) Conventional graphite serpentine channel bipolar plate; 2) Channel-less bipolar plate with nickel(Ni) based metal foam which coated by various materials. We focused the difference in contact resistance and performance of the single cell with metal foam depending on various coating materials. The experimental results show the similar performance of single cells between with serpentine channel bipolar plates and with channel-less bipolar plate using metal foams. In addition, single cell with metal foam shows potential to higher performance than conventional channel.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.352-355
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• 2006

As the stainless steel has good corrosion resistance, mechanical property and ease of manufacture, it has been studied as the candidate material of metallic bipolar plate for automotive PIMFC. But, metal is dissolved under fuel cell operating conditions Dissolved ions contaminate a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) and, decrease the fuel cell performance. In addition, metal oxide formation on the surface of stainless steel increases the contact resistance in the fuel cell. These problems have been acted as an obstacle in the application of stainless steel to bipolar plate. Therefore, many kinds of coating technologies have been examined in order to solve these problems. In this study, stainless steel was coated in order to achieve high conductivity and corrosion resistance by several methods. Contact resistance was measured by using a tensile tester and impedance analyzer Corrosion characteristics of coated stainless steel were examined by Tafel-extrapolation method from the polarization curves in a solution simulating the anodic and cathodic environment of PEMFC. Fuel cell performance was also evaluated by single cell test. We tested various coated metal bipolar plate and conventional and graphite were also tested as comparative samples. In the result, coated stainless steel bipolar plate exhibited better cell performance than graphite to bipolar plate.