Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY
Volume 43, Issue 33, Pages 15659-15672Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.07.003
Keywords
Polymer electrolyte water; electrolyser; Flow-field; Gas-bubble dynamics; Two-phase flow; High-speed optical visualization
Categories
Funding
- Presidential Scholarship for Innovation and Development
- Petroleum Technology Development Fund, Nigeria
- EPSRC [EP/M014371/1, EP/M023508/1, EP/M009394/1, EP/L015749/1, EP/K038656/1, EP/N022971/1]
- EPSRC [EP/P034101/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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Understanding gas evolution and two-phase flow behaviour are critical for performance optimization of polymer electrolyte membrane water electrolysers (PEMWEs), particularly at high current densities. This study investigates the gas-bubble dynamics and two-phase flow behaviour in the anode flow-field of a PEMWE under different operating conditions using high-speed optical imaging and relates the results to the electrochemical performance. Two types of anode flow-field designs were investigated, the single serpentine flow-field (SSFF) and parallel flow-field (PFF). The results show that the PFF design yielded a higher cell performance than the SSFF design at identical operating conditions. Optical visualization shows a strong relationship between the flow path length and the length of gas slugs produced, which in turn influences the flow regime of operation. Longer flow path length in the SSFF results in annular flow regime at a high current density which degrades cell performance. The annular flow regime was absent in the PFF design. It was found the effect of flow rate on performance depends strongly on operating temperature in both flow patterns. Results of this study indicate that long channel length promotes gas accumulation and channel-blocking which degrades performance in PEMWEs. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC.
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