Thermal management of high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stacks in the power range of 1-10 kWe

Reddy, E H and Jayanti, S and Monder, D S (2014) Thermal management of high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stacks in the power range of 1-10 kWe. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 39 (35). pp. 20127-20138. ISSN 0360-3199

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Abstract

Maintaining optimal temperature of the stack is critical for efficient operation of high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. While a number of possibilities of thermal management exist for small stacks, the problem becomes more complicated for larger stacks. In the present study, the thermal management of stacks in the power range of 1-10 kWe is considered through computational fluid dynamics simulations. It is shown that large stacks need to have dedicated cooling plates through which a coolant is circulated. Further, stacks of the size of 10 kWe can have reasonably low cell temperature variations (similar to 20 K) only by passing pre-heated liquid coolant through the coolant plates. Estimates show that the concomitant increase in the coolant flow rate induces large pressure drops, of the order of 30 bar, if a four-parallel serpentine is used on an active cell area of 30 cm x 30 cm. It is therefore necessary to use parallel channel flow fields with carefully designed feeder manifolds to maintain optimal cell temperatures and reasonably low coolant pressure drops in large stacks.

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IITH Creators:
IITH CreatorsORCiD
Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: High temperature PEM fuel cells; Thermal management; Scale-up; Coolant circulation system; Pressure drop; Computational fluid dynamics
Subjects: Chemical Engineering > Explosives, fuels, related products
Chemical Engineering > Biochemical Engineering
Divisions: Department of Chemical Engineering
Depositing User: Team Library
Date Deposited: 27 May 2015 09:25
Last Modified: 27 May 2015 09:25
URI: http://raiith.iith.ac.in/id/eprint/1540
Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.09.132
OA policy: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/issn/0360-3199/
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