Design and modeling of high temperature water free proton exchange membranes in DEA PEMFC operations

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1149/05801.0789ecst

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a greatalternative in transportation however there are still some issues onthe application of PEMFC, such as complexity in balance-of-plantdesign and cost of the system. Dead ended anode (sealed offanode) design might be a solution to reduce the complexity ofPEMFC. DEA operation eliminates the expensive hardware, suchas mass flow controllers, hydrogen recovery system andhumidifiers of PEMFC system. Moreover, the DEA operation ofNafion® is experiencing the disadvantages of low operationtemperature (40-80 °C) as the corrosion of the expensiveelectrodes by accumulated water. Beyond it is low operationtemperatures; Nafion® is also expensive and increases the cost ofthe PEMFC. Hence, in this study, the water free, high temperatureand cost competitive radiation induced grafted membranes weresynthesized and tested in both flow through anode (FTA) and deadended anode (DEA) operation in PEMFC.