OPTIMIZING FUEL CELL MEMBRANE EFFICIENCY THROUGH COMPARATIVE THERMAL ANALYSIS OF HYDROGEN FUEL VARIANTS

Abstract This study investigates the thermal behavior of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells using hydrogen and hydrogen methanol fuels. An extensive 3D model was constructed for the simulation of the temperature, current density, and thermal efficiency distribution, with Nafion EW1100 membranes under high-temperature conditions using COMSOL Multiphysics. Moreover, this study highlights the essential connection between temperature profiles and the performance of the entire fuel cell. However, at a given voltage of 0.4 V and 0.8 V, hydrogen consistently operated at lower temperatures between the Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL), Gas Diffusion Electrode (GDE), and the PEM compared to the hydrogen methanol fuel. For instance, at 0.4 V hydrogen temperatures 4-5 K lower than that of hydrogen, and methanol at 0.8 V, this difference increased to 4-6 K. The temperature differential is indicative of hydrogen's ability to manipulate its heat-generating and dissipating processes more efficiently than PET. This demonstrates hydrogen’s advantages over other fuel cells because the current density correlates with temperature. For all temperatures, hydrogen provides higher current densities than hydrogen-methanol, supporting its usefulness in improving fuel cell efficiency. This increased thermal management not only improves the thermal efficiency of the fuel cell but also prolongs PEM, GDL, and GDE life by decreasing the thermal stress. Hence, from this analysis, it is shown that hydrogen fuel contributed to better thermal management causing superior performance and greater lifetime for PEMFC. This could be more efficient fuel cell systems for the application of advanced membrane technology such as Nafion EW1100.