Maintaining proper membrane humidity is crucial to ensure optimal operation of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell system. A membrane humidifier using the fuel cell exhaust gas to humidify the dry air is studied in this paper. We first develop a thermodynamic model, which captures the crucial dynamic variables of the humidifier, including the pressure, flow rate, temperature, and relative ...

Our previous studies demonstrated great potential of methyl methacrylate and vinylbenzyl chloride based copolymer electrolytes for alkaline fuel cell applications. In this study, a number of factors including polymer composition drift, molecular weight, and polymer crosslinking is investigated to understand their effects and to precisely control the electrolyte properties including conductivity...

In the past few years, the interest in the Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) has increased dramatically, as it has very advantageous features as a mobile source of electrical energy. Its fuel methanol is easy to store and to handle and has a high energy density. These advantages over hydrogen-fed PEMFCs (polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells) have resulted in first commercial products (e.g. fr...

F uel cells have tantalized engineers for more than a century as efficient devices to directly convert chemical energy to electrical energy. However, fuel cell use has been limited to niche applications, like space vehicles and emergency backup power systems, due to their expensive components and specialized fuel requirements. During the past two decades polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel ...

In this paper, we introduce a modified interpretation of the water activity presented in Springer et al. [T.E. Springer, T.A. Zawodzinski, S. ottesfeld, Polymer electrolyte fuel cell model, J. Electrochem. Soc. 138 (8) (1991) 2334–2342]. The modification directly affects the membrane ater transport between the anode and the cathode (two electrodes) of the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel...

Waste incineration fly ash was successfully recycled to calcium phosphate hydrogel, a type of fast proton conductor. The crystallized hydrogel from incineration fly ash had a lower electric conductivity and a lower crystallinity than that from calcium carbonate reagent. However, the difference in electric conductivity between these crystallized hydrogels decreases with temperature. This was due...

In this work membrane (proton exchange membrane) by using the blend polymers (polyethersulfone (PES), Expandable polystyrene (EPS), polyvenylidinefluride polymer (PVDF)) were prepared. This was modified adding organic sulfonic acid to solution precasting process, and sulfonated dipping it in diluted sulfuric (H2SO460%) post casting process. The sulfonation confirmed via FTIR spectra. characteri...