Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY
Volume 42, Issue 41, Pages 25831-25847Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.08.183
Keywords
PEM electrolysis; Low cost design; High current densities; Porous transport layer; Multiphysics modelling; Mass transport
Categories
Funding
- University of British Columbia (Canada)
- Fraunhofer Society (Germany)
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A semi-empirical non-isothermal model incorporating coupled momentum, heat and mass transport phenomena for predicting the performance of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolysis cell operating without flow channels is presented. Model input parameters such as electro-kinetics properties and mean pore size of the porous transport layer (PTL) were determined by rotating disc electrode and capillary flow porometry, respectively. This is the first report of a semi-empirical fully coupled model which allows one to quantify and investigate the effect of the gas phase and bubble coverage on PEM cell performance up to very high current densities of about 5 A/cm(2), The mass transport effects are discussed in terms of the operating conditions, design parameters and the microstructure of the PTL. The results show that, the operating temperature and pressure, and the inlet water flowrate and thickness of the PTL are the critical parameters for mitigating mass transport limitation at high current densities. The model presented here can serve as a tool for further development and scale-up effort in the area of PEM water electrolysis, and provide insight during the design stage. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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