Effect of the Gas Diffusion Layer Design on the Water Management and Cell Performance of a PEM Fuel Cell

The influence of the different properties gas diffusion layer (GDL) on operation a liquid-cooled, proton-exchange polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEMFC) has been studied in this work. Three-dimensional numerical simulations (CFD) have conducted to compare several commercial GDLs with properties, analyzing their performance. Specifically, four (AvCarb P-75, SIGRACET 34BC, 34BA and Toray TGP-H-090) studied, two them including microporous (MPL). effect MPL inspected by contrast results obtained same GDL, or without MPL. Potentiostatic boundary conditions applied, varying electric potential between 1.05 0.35 V obtain representative i?V curve enough resolution. Detailed postprocessing tasks were carried out gain deeper understanding phenomena occurring within for each GDL. It can be concluded from work that high electrical conductivity permeability lead better On other hand, although presence provides lower leading worse overall performance, it shown lack may result membrane dehydration degradation issues.