Abstract
The fuel cell is one of the alternative powerplants to replace the conventional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) in vehicles. Among all the different types of fuel cells, the PEMFC (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell) has the greatest potential to be used for automotive applications because of its low operating temperatures, solid type electrolyte, high efficiency, and high power density. The technology of the PEMFC has been developed in the aspects of the design and analysis. In order to apply the PEMFC to dynamic operating environment such as in automotive applications, it is necessary that the PEMFC technologies should be developed together with the control system of the PEMFC. The modelling of the PEMFC is the first step to develop the control system of the PEMFC.
In this study, a PEMFC model which uses lumped parameters is developed that is mathematically simple, but well represents the essential phenomena which affect PEMFC performance. The performance of the PEMFC mainly depends on membrane properties and thermodynamics of the gas in the fuel cell system. The PEMFC model structure describes water transport phenomena in the membrane and thermodynamics in the fuel cells system. We consider that the PEMFC system consists of three physically distinctive parts: the anode channel, the cathode channel, and the Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA). The laws of mass conservation and the energy conservation are adopted to describe each physical part as a control volume. In addition, the MEA model contains the steady-state electrochemical model which consists of the membrane hydration model and the stack voltage model.
Keywords:PEMFC (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell), Thermodynamics, Water transport, Model, Control volume