A Study of Water Management in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells: Compression Effect on Multiphase Flow

One of the main obstacles to overcome regarding the uptake of renewable energy technologies, specifically wind and solar energy, is their intermittency. Current energy storage techniques are costly and in-efficient. Fuel cells are a promising candidate for future energy storage, as part of an integrated system combining renewable energy
with hydrogen production as the storage vector with reconversion. The Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell (PEFC) has the greatest potential for use with micro-generated renewable power and is suitable for the widest range of applications. Hence it has received a great deal of attention from research institutions and industry over the last few decades. However, they suffer performance limitations due to flooding by liquid water in the porous components forming the electrodes of the cell.

Two numerical investigations utilising different methods to probe multiphase transport in porous media, and one experimental investigation into the flow through partially saturated porous media, are presented. The porous media under investigation are typical materials for PEFC gas diffusion layers (GDLs), and the influence of compression of the material on the multiphase transport is investigated. In addition, a further study assessing the suitability of pore-scale capillary pressure
models for predicting multiphase flow behaviour is included as a final research chapter.