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Numerical study of heterogeneous porosity in gas diffusion layers of high-temperature proton-exchange membrane fuel cells

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Abstract

The heterogeneously porous gas diffusion layers (GDLs) in high-temperature proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFCs) have not yet been comprehensively investigated. In this work, homogeneous and heterogeneous porosity models are established, and the effects of porosity on the electrical conductivity, oxygen distribution, diffusion flux, ohmic resistance, ohmic polarization, and cell performance of HT-PEMFCs are discussed. The results indicate that increasing the average degree of porosity can improve the oxygen concentration and the uniformity index of oxygen distribution in the catalytic layer. When the average porosity increases from 45 to 65%, the uniformity index increases from 80.21 to 91.93%. Porosity is inversely proportional to electrical conductivity and directly proportional to ohmic resistance. Discussions of the porosity heterogeneity reveal that the average porosity is the main factor affecting the cell performance. The optimal porosity of the GDL falls between 40% and 45%, and the gradient of porosity is small.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this project from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21676257). The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.

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  1. School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Xu Han, Pengwei Liu, Shengliang Fan, Yang Liu & Zunlong Jin

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  1. Xu Han
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  2. Pengwei Liu
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  3. Shengliang Fan
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  4. Yang Liu
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Correspondence to Zunlong Jin.

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Han, X., Liu, P., Fan, S. et al. Numerical study of heterogeneous porosity in gas diffusion layers of high-temperature proton-exchange membrane fuel cells. J Appl Electrochem 52, 1733–1746 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-022-01746-2

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