Single- and Double-Sided Coated Gas Diffusion Layers Used in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells: A Numerical Study

Okereke, Isaac C.; Ismail, Mohammed S.; Ingham, Derek B.; Hughes, Kevin; Ma, Lin; Pourkashanian, Mohamed

Abstract

A new three-dimensional numerical model of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) with a single straight channel was developed to primarily investigate the important impact of the double-sided microporous layer (MPL) coating on the overall performance of the fuel cell and the distribution of the current and the oxygen concentration within the cathode gas diffusion layers (GDLs). Realistic experimentally estimated interfacial contact resistance values between the gas diffusion layer and each of the bipolar plates and the catalyst layer values were incorporated into the model, and parametric studies were performed. The results showed that the double-sided MPL coating could significantly improve the fuel cell performance by up to 30%. Additionally, it was shown that the neglect of the contact resistance between the MPL and the catalyst layer could overestimate the fuel cell performance by up to 6%. In addition, the results showed that the fuel cell performance and the distribution of the current and oxygen are more sensitive to the porosity of the MPL facing the bipolar plate than the porosity of the MPL facing the catalyst layer. All the above results are presented and critically discussed in detail.

Citation

Okereke, I. C., Ismail, M. S., Ingham, D. B., Hughes, K., Ma, L., & Pourkashanian, M. (2023). Single- and Double-Sided Coated Gas Diffusion Layers Used in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells: A Numerical Study. Energies, 16(11), Article 4363. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16114363

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 22, 2023
• Online Publication Date: May 27, 2023
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jul 17, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 17, 2023
• Journal: Energies
• Electronic ISSN: 1996-1073
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 11
• Article Number: 4363
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/en16114363
• Keywords: Polymer electrolyte fuel cells; Gas diffusion layers; Microporous layer; Double-sided coating; Contact resistance; Porosity
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4335099