Design, characterization and modeling of high temperature proton exchange membranes in dead ended anode operated polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1534447 (Table of Contents)

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) have the potential to reduce our pollutant emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. Factors such as complex balance-of-plant design and cost still remain as the major barriers to fuel cell. The eradication of the two main shortcomings of PEMFC has been targeted in this thesis study. The first shortcoming is high cost of the membrane and its water depended low operation temperature. The second one is the complex balance-of-plant design of PEMFC system. The synthesized, radiation grafted, high temperature proton conducting membrane improves the operation temperature of conventional PEMFC (i.e., <80 °C) up to 120 °C. The novel, high temperature proton conducting membrane eliminates the electrochemical by product water and improves the overall performance of PEMFC. Moreover, the synthesized, high temperature proton conducting membrane is cost competitive and very well suited for bulk production in any defined size. The dead ended anode (DEA) operation is considered as an alternative to the conventional PEMFC system. The operation with a DEA reduces fuel cell system cost, weight, and volume since the anode external humidification and recirculation hardware can be eliminated. Thus, the conventional PEMFC system is modified according to DEA operation in the study. The shortcomings of the commercial membrane in the DEA operation have been reduced with the synthesized, high temperature proton exchange membrane. Additionally, a transient, one dimensional along the channel numerical model is developed. The model is used to understand the two phase water transport mechanism during a low temperature DEA operation.