• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.9
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• pp.1706-1713
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• 2009

In this paper, a parallel operation algorithm for high power PEMFC generation systems is proposed. According to increasing the capacity of fuel cell systems with several fuel cell stacks, the different dynamic characteristics of each fuel cell stack effect on imbalance of load sharing and current distribution, so that a robust parallel operation algorithm is desired. Therefore, a power-sharing technique is developed and explained in order to design an optimal distributed PEMFC generation system. In addition, an optimal controller design procedure for the proposed parallel operation algorithm is introduced, along with informative simulations and experimental results.

• 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.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.118-127
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• 2012

TiN or Ti/TiN was coated on stainless steel as bipolar plate in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) to improve their corrosion resistance and electric conductivity, and their properties were examined under fuel cell operating condition. After 200 hours operation, the behaviors for the corrosion, crack and dissolution of coating layer were investigated by various techniques. The corrosion and exfoliation of coating layer were considerably generated except for SUS316L-Ti/TiN after fuel cell operation even if the electric conductivity and corrosion resistance of coated stainless steel bipolar plates were improved. The adoption of Ti layer between TiN layer and the surface of stainless steel enhanced the adhesion of TiN layer and decreased the possibility of corrosion by the increase of coating layer.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.375-381
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• 2021

Chitosan powder is synthesized by a deasetylation process of chitin, obtained from processing of dried shrimp shell powder. Subsequently, chitosan (CS) membranes filled by montmorillonite (MMT) particles and phosphotungstic acid are prepared, and characterized by FT-IR and SEM. The morphology, obtained by SEM for the composite membrane, showed that MMT filler is successfully incorporated and relatively well dispersed in the chitosan polymer matrix. Water and methanol uptake for the CS/MMT composite membranes decrease with increasing MMT loadings, but IEC value increases. In all prepared CS/MMT composite membranes, the CS membrane filled by 5 wt% MMT particles exhibits the best proton conductivity, while that with 10 wt% MMT loading exhibits the lowest methanol permeability; these values are 2.67 mS·cm^-1 and 3.40 × 10^-7 cm²·s^-1, respectively. The best membrane selectivity is shown in the CS/MMT10 composite membrane; this shows that 10 wt% filled MMT is the optimum loading to improve the performance of the chitosan composite membrane. These characteristics make the developed chitosan composite membranes a promising electrolyte for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) application.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.186-188
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• 2004

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.51-55
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• 2017

Micro fuel cells have high reliability and long usage time. Among them, PEMFC (polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell) is suitable as a portable power source because it is easy to fix electrolyte and simple structure. The bipolar plate, a key component of the fuel cell, is produced by cutting. In the case of micro fuel cell separator, burr is very small and the flow channel size in the separator is very small. Therefore, it is difficult to remove burrs in the usual way such as a brushing or ultra-sonic method. Therefore, this study proposed electrolytic polishing process and analyzed the characteristics of each condition by introducing the concept of roughness reduction rate. In addition, the ultrasonic process was added to analyze the effect of ultrasonic addition.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.393-400
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• 2013

The air supply system has a significant effect on the efficiency of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) systems. The performance and efficiency of automotive PEMFC systems are greatly influenced by their air supply system configurations. This study deals with the system simulation of automotive PEMFC systems using MATLAB/Simulink framework. In this study, a low-pressure operating PEMFC system adopting blower sub-module (turbo-blower) is modeled to investigate the effects of stack operating temperature and air stoichiometry on the parasitic power and efficiency of automotive PEMFC systems. In addition, the PEMFC net system efficiency and parasitic power of air supply system are mainly compared for the two types (low-pressure operating and high-pressure operating) of automotive PEMFC systems under the same net power conditions. It is suggested that the obtained results from this system approach can be applied for establishing the novel operating strategies for FC vehicles.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.11
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• pp.722-727
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• 2009

The bipolar plates are not only the major part of the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack in weight and volume, but also a significant contributor to the stack costs. Stainless steels are considered to be good candidates for bipolar plate materials of the PEMFC due to their low cost, high strength and easy machining, as well as corrosion resistance. In this paper, 316L stainless steel with and without nitrogen ion implantation were tested in simulated PEMFC environments for application as bipolar plates. The results showed that the nitride formed by nitrogen ion implantation contributed the decrease of the interfacial contact resistance without degradation of corrosion property. The combination of excellent properties indicated that nitrogen ion implanted stainless steel could be potential candidate materials as bipolar plates in PEMFC. Current efforts have focused on optimizing the condition of ion implantation.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.340-347
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• 2022

In this research, mixed metal oxide (TiO₂, RuO₂) coating was applied to grade 1 titanium as a bipolar plate for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Electrochemical experiments were carried out in an aqueous solution of pH 3 (H₂SO₄ + 0.1 ppm HF, 80 ℃) determined by DoE. The air was bubbled to simulate a cathode environment. Potentiodynamic polarization test revealed that corrosion current densities of the titanium substrate and MMO-coated specimen were 0.180 µA/cm² and 4.381 µA/cm², respectively. There was no active peak. After potentiostatic experiment, current densities of the titanium substrate and the MMO-coated specimen were 0.19 µA/cm² and 1.05 µA/cm², respectively. As a result of observing the surface before and after the potentiostatic experiment, cracked dried clay structures were observed without corrosion damage. Both the titanium substrate and the MMO-coated specimen could not satisfy the interfacial contact resistance suggested by the DoE. Thus, further research is needed before they could be applied as bipolar plates.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.739-748
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• 2010

The increased integration of fuel cells with power electronics, critical loads, and control systems has prompted recent interest in accurate electrical terminal models of the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell. Advancement in computing technologies, particularly parallel computation techniques and various real-time simulation tools have allowed the prototyping of novel apparatus to be investigated in a virtual system under a wide range of realistic conditions repeatedly, safely, and economically. This paper builds upon both advancements and provides a means of optimized model construction boosting computation speeds for a fuel cell model on a real-time simulator which can be used in a power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) application. Significant improvement in computation time has been achieved. The effectiveness of the proposed model developed on Opal RT's RT-Lab Matlab/Simulink based real-time engineering simulator is verified using experimental results from a Ballard Nexa fuel cell system.