Engineering Net Water Balance in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells

The net water drag in a polymer electrolyte fuel cell is a result of a variety of transport processes. There is often a need to tailor the water balance to achieve higher performance under dry operating conditions. The motivation of this collected work is to understand the methods by which we can control the water transport in a PEFC via engineering of the components and architecture. Experimental and numerical models have been developed to measure and predict this, and various pathways for control of water storage and transport will be discussed. In particular, control of the micro and macroporous layer thermal and mass transport resistance, cell architecture, and microporous layer vertical bar catalyst layer interface will be shown to be capable of manipulating the net water storage and drag coefficient.