Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFC) convert chemical energy into electrical energy with high energy efficiency. Air-breathing PEMFC is a type of fuel cell suited for portable application owing to certain properties such as light weight and low operating temperature. The performance of the fuel cells can be improved by optimizing the temperature and pressure. Temperature directly influences the water management and the rate of oxygen reduction, whereas pressure, due to clamping of the cell, acts as one of the main dominant characters in the performance of the cell in the case of air-breathing PEMFC. The main goal of this thesis was to study the effect on performance of using different geometrical areas of the GDL (electrode area).The polarization results for the entire set of cells showed an increasing trend with higher electrode areas. The effect of clamping pressure was observed to be one of the dominant parameters when the performance curve was plotted for potential vs current density. This might be due gas distribution along the surface of the electrodes. The choice of gasket thickness in the cell assembly also showed a performance difference for cells of same electrode area
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kth-235503 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Murugaiah, Dhinesh Kumar |
| Publisher | KTH, Skolan för kemi, bioteknologi och hälsa (CBH) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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