Investigation of PEM Fuel Cell for Performance Augmentation: A Numerical Modeling Based Study

Abstract

Fuel cells are a promising source of clean renewable energy that is undergoing extensive scientific research and development. . One important type of fuel cells is Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEM), which is considered in this study. The goal of this research was to create a mathematical computerised model to simulate the stages of a PEM fuel cell and to investigate the effects of cell design and operation parameters on overall performance. PEM fuel cells operate at low temperature, allowing for faster start-ups and immediate response to changes in the demand for power. These include membrane thickness, cell area, hydrogen pressure and ionic current density. A one-dimensional model has been proposed and used to investigate the effects of PEM fuel cell parameters on overall performance. Fuel cells cannot operate effectively if even small amounts of gas are able to permeate the membrane through microscopic pinholes. The findings show that as cell membrane thickness increases, cell power (and electrical efficiency) decreases.Furthermore, the maximum value of cell power is obtained at a membrane thickness of 0.005 cm and the minimum value is obtained at a membrane thickness of 0.05 cm.However, the optimal ionic current density value for obtaining relatively high cell power and electrical efficiency is equal to 0.81 A/cm2.These findings help to advance efforts to create new PEM fuel cell designs and materials.