• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.305-312
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• 2011

The use of a separator to control stack temperature in a molten carbonate fuel cell was studied by numerical simulation using a computational fluid dynamics code. The stack model assumed steady-state and constant-load operation of a co-flow stack with an external reformer at atmospheric pressure. Representing a conventional cell type, separators with two flow paths, one each for the anode and cathode gas, were simulated under conditions in which the cathode gas was composed of either air and carbon dioxide (case I) or oxygen and carbon dioxide (case II). The results showed that the average cell potential in case II was higher than that in case I due to the higher partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the cathode gas. This result indicates that the amount of heat released during the electrochemical reactions was less for case II than for case I under the same load. However, simulated results showed that the maximum stack temperature in case I was lower than that in case II due to a reduction in the total flow rate of the cathode gas. To control the stack temperature and retain a high cell potential, we proposed the use of a separator with three flow paths (case III); two flow paths for the electrodes and a path in the center of the separator for the flow of nitrogen for cooling. The simulated results for case III showed that the average cell potential was similar to that in case II, indicating that the amount of heat released in the stack was similar to that in case II, and that the maximum stack temperature was the lowest of the three cases due to the nitrogen gas flow in the center of the separator. In summary, the simulated results showed that the use of a separator with three flow paths enabled temperature control in a co-flow stack with an external reformer at atmospheric pressure.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.456-461
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• 2003

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device in which the energy of a chemical reaction is converted directly into electricity. By combining hydrogen fuel with oxygen from air, electricity is formed, without combustion of any form. Water and heat are the only by-products when hydrogen is used as the fuel source. Fuel cell stack consists of multi-layered unit cells. A unit cell consists of MEA and bipolar plates. The end plate of fuel cell stack should give a uniform distributed pressure to multi unit cell layers so as to reduce the contact resistance and to prevent the leakage of reactant gases and the damage of multi layer components. The current end plate is redundantly large and heavy. It makes the power per unit volume reduced. Topology optimization of end plate is conducted for mass reduction and enhancement of bending rigidity. The evaluation of the current design and the recommendation for the future design is remarked.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.68-75
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• 2010

The one of the major problems in the development of PEMFC was regarding to the assurance of sealing on stack. The failure on the sealing creates the problems of fuel leakage, mixing, internal combustion, damage on parts and can be a direct reason for the degrading the efficiency of fuel cell. This paper studies on the analytical approach for improving the contacting pressure distribution on the gasket at the evaluation on the sealing of fuel cell stack. So, the assembly analysis on multi layered fuel cell stack was performed. The research on the simplification of finite element model was performed for three dimensional analysis at the multi layered state. The improved contact pressure distribution was obtained through the case studies on gasket for better sealing. In addition, the number of the cell was determined for the effective analysis and the structural characteristics were evaluated based on this research.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.1-4
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• 2008

Fuel cells have the potential of providing several times higher energy storage densities than those possible using current state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries, but current energy density of fuel cell system is not better than that of lithium-ion batteries. To achieve the high energy density, volume and weight of fuel cell system need to be reduced by miniaturizing system components such as stack, fuel tank, and balance-of-plant. In this paper, the thin flexible PCB (Printed circuit board) is used as a current collector to reduce the stack volume. Two end plates are made from light weight aluminum alloy plate. The plate surface is wholly oxidized through the anodizing treatment for electrical insulation. The opening rate of cathode plate hole is optimized through unit cell performance measurement of various opening rates. The performances are measured at room temperature and ambient pressure condition without any repulsive air supply. The active area of MEA is 10.08 $cm^2$ and active area per a unit cell is 1.68 $cm^2$. The peak power density is about 210 mW/$cm^2$ and the air-breathing planar stack of 2 Wis achieved as a small volume of 18 cc.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.852-858
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• 2011

This paper is aiming to estimate the mutual influence of the stack cooling performances with the operation modes of the thermal management system for the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The heat capacity of the thermal management system was measured by varying the operating modes such as stack cooling heat exchanger only (Mode 1), stack cooling and electric devices cooling heat exchangers (Mode 2), and stack cooling and electric devices cooling heat exchangers with an operation of the condenser (Mode 3).As the results, Performance of the thermal management system (TMS) at Mode 3 decreased up to 34.0%, compared with the result of the Mode 1. In addition, in order to optimize the performance of TMS, the entropy change of stack cooling heat exchanger using irreversibility analysis technique was analyzed with the relationship between entropy generation and entering air velocity of the thermal management system.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2003-2008
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• 2007

The transient power characteristics of a PEM fuel cell stack was experimentally studied using a commercial 1.2kW PEM fuel cell ($Nexa^{TM}$ Power Module, Ballard Power System Inc.). The conditions in PEM fuel cell stack such as temperature and water content change rather slowly because of their large heat capacity and long channel length, which results in long transient time to converge to a steady state. The steady characteristics of the PEM fuel cell module was determined first, followed by the measurement of its transient characteristics upon stepwise and continuous load current changes. During the stepwise current change from 5A to 25A, the output voltage initially decreased below the steady voltage and then increased gradually. Similar behavior was also observed for the stepwise current change from 25A to 5A. This transient behavior is explained with reference to the evolution of the temperature and water content of the PEM fuel cell stack.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.1031_1032
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• 2009

The voltages of unit cells of a fuel cell stack are one of the most significant factors to detect failure conditions and thereof safely control and operate the fuel cell system. In this paper, we describe two methods to monitor the voltages of the unit cells of a stack in consideration of data accuracy, circuit extensibility to various numbers of cells, and cost. The reported methods are approached by (i) the power isolation of cell voltage monitoring part from the communications part and (ii) the utilization of a commercially available cell monitoring integrated circuit IC of a Li-ion battery.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.93-99
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• 2009

In this paper, transient voltage response of Polmer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) stack is analyzed and voltage dynamic characteristic is modeled for optimal design of power conditioning system (PCS). According that the load is changed, the corresponding operating voltage of fuel cell stack is also varied with a certain deep and rising time due to the chemical and mechanical responses. This transient behavior can affect on the operation with respect of PI gain in controller, duty ratio, capacitor of capacitor and so on. So in this paper the detailed theoretical analysis of transient voltage dynamics is explained and the methodology of dynamic modeling is introduced. In addition, the validity and feasibility of the proposed dynamic model is verified by experimental results under various load conditions.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2005

PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) is considered as an attractive option to produce electric power in manyapplications. A fundamental step of theoretical fuel cell open circuit potential is examined and compared with the measured data from 1.2KW PEMFC module. The hydrogen pressure and stack temperature are also measured during the operation of PEMFC module. It is found that the stack voltage and current data agree in general with the results calculated by chemical potential approach though they still have a discrepancy. It is analysed that the discrepancy is due to activation polarization, concentration overvoltage and ohmic overvoltage.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.391-398
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• 2006

This work involves a method for modeling the flow distribution in the stack of a solid oxide fuel cell. Towards this end, a three dimensional modeling of the flow through a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) stack was carried out using the CFD analysis. This paper examines the efficacy of using cold flow analysis to describe the flow through a SOFC stack. It brings out the relative importance of temperature effect and the mass transfer effect on the SOFC manifold design. Another feature of this study is to utilize statistical tools to ascertain the extent of uniform flow through a stack. The results showed that the cold flow analysis of flow through SOFC might not lead to correct manifold designs. The results of the numerical calculations also indicated that the mass transfer across membrane was essential to correctly describe the cathode flow, while only temperature effects were sufficient to describe the anode flow in a SOFC.