Mass Transfer in the HT-PEM Fuel Cell Electrode

A two-dimensional, single phase flow model for high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEM fuel cell) is developed to study the mass transfer in its cathode; the influences of the cell temperature, the porosity and thickness of gas diffusion layer on its performance are analyzed. The good consistency between the simulation results and the experimental results proves the feasibility of this model. The research results show that, when the cell temperature increases, performance of the HT-PEM fuel cell improves, but both water and oxygen concentration distributions in its cathode hardly changes; the decrease of the gas diffusion layer thickness and the increase of the porosity of the gas diffusion layer reduce the concentration over-potential, which finally leads to the improvement of the performance of the HT-PEM fuel cell.