Investigation of heat and mass transfer properties of the embedded metal bipolar plate proton exchange membrane fuel cell

To address the lack of structural innovation and low volumetric energy density in PEMFC bipolar plates (BPs), this study proposes a novel embedded metal BP (EMBP) integrated with an ESECFF cooling structure. We systematically compared EMBP with traditional metal BPs (TMBPs) via system-level coupling analysis, focusing on temperature uniformity, mass transfer, and cell performance. Results show EMBP outperforms TMBP in energy density, heat transfer and reaction efficiency, resolving temperature concentration. Case 1 (small O 2 channel + embedded H 2 –O 2 channels) achieves a 5.74% higher current density than Case 2 (large O 2 channel). The EMBP channel size (O 2 : 0.25 × 0.25 mm; H 2 : 0.45 × 0.25 mm) maximizes energy density (5.78% and 17.46% higher than identical literature-reported TMBPs), balancing process feasibility. This work provides theoretical and design support for high-performance PEMFC engineering, with future efforts on full-plate manufacturing and experimental verification. • EMBP with ESECFF cooling structure significantly boosts PEMFC energy density. • EMBP optimizes PEMFC temperature distribution, curbing local heat concentration. • Proper EMBP channel size reduction boosts PEMFC energy density uniformly.