Ahmet Evren Firat (Autor)

Mechanical Analysis of PEM Fuel Cell Stack Design

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1 Motivation
The use of fossil fuels to cover the energy demand in the future carries key problems to
overcome. The environmental and economic concerns regarding the climate change and the
decrease in the oil reserves lead the research and industry to the search for alternatives [1].
The increase in the energy demand due to the economic and demographic growth in the world
enhances the necessity of these research efforts. The dependency of several developed
countries on the fossil fuel economy and political instability for energy supply enforce the
search for the alternatives additionally.

The global energy economy is not going to depend on only one single energy source in order
to get a secure energy supply. The product range for the energy supply differs from nuclear
power to geothermal energy. But renewable energy sources fulfill the requirements as a long
term solution. They are getting incrementally more importance for the energy markets due to
the depletion of fossil fuels and environmental concerns. The predicted growth in supply of
renewable energy sources reaches an average value of 8.1% p.a. until 2035 [2].

The fluctuations in renewable energy production such as solar, wind and hydropower prevent
sustainable energy sources to provide a stable solution to the energy problems [3-7]. Storing
the energy produced by renewable sources is a key phenomenon in order to remove
production instabilities and is focused by research and industry in last decade in order to
achieve the global energy goals. The production and storage of renewable energy are
significant issues in order to increase the use of renewable energy applications.

Production of hydrogen is considered as an alternative way for storing the electrical energy
produced by renewable sources. Production of hydrogen with electrolysis and storing the
produced hydrogen in special tanks or underground are actual research efforts and open the
gateway to the hydrogen economy. The hydrogen economy is also feasible via producing the
hydrogen from fossil fuels by reforming processes but this

Fuel cell systems represent a potentially viable option with high level of efficiency for re-
electrification of hydrogen [8]. Using fuel cells to utilize hydrogen has high efficiency values
depending on the type of the fuel cell [9]. The PEM type fuel cells promise several advantages
for fuel cell applications due to the low temperature requirements. Hydrogen can also be
converted to electrical energy by using a combustion process. However this reduces the
overall efficiency [10].

Several PEM fuel cell systems have been demonstrated in the last decade. Besides the
hydrogen supply and the costs for the fuel cell systems, the durability of fuel cells plays an
important role for the commercial launch. The mechanical stability of fuel cells leads to a higher
level of lifespan due to the durability of single fuel cell components like membrane and gas

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Motivation

diffusion layers [11, 12]. It is also required to get an optimal mechanical pressure on the fuel
cell components in order to get an optimal efficiency from the fuel cell stack.

The overall aim of this work is to enable the explicit analysis of fuel cell stack designs from a
mechanical point of view in order to increase the mechanical durability and reach the optimal
performance. Understanding the mechanical characteristics of the fuel cell stacks leads to the
dimensioning of the stack components and contributes to the optimization procedure during
the prototyping process, which assists in the cost reduction of fuel cell stacks. This also
enables to make safe and compact fuel cell stack designs depending on the application, which
plays an important role for implementation of fuel cells for stationary and transportation
applications. The developed design procedure in this study and the analysis for a specific fuel
cell stack can also be implemented both for other fuel cell stacks and similar applications.

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2 Introduction
A fuel cell is a device, which converts chemical energy directly to the electrical energy in a
single electrochemical step with the help of catalyst. In principle a fuel cell operates similar to
a battery. A fuel cell does not require recharging in comparison to a battery. It produces energy
in the form of electricity and heat as long as fuel is supplied.

Different from Carnot heat engines, the efficiency of the fuel cells reaches to the theoretical
values of owing to the elimination of the mechanical energy conversion process [9].
There are no moving parts in the fuel cells involved in the production process of electricity
which contributes to the higher level of efficiency. A single fuel cell consists of two electrodes
sandwiched around an electrolyte layer and produce electrical current principally by consuming
hydrogen and oxygen.

2.1 Fuel Cell Applications

Fuel cells are used for several stationary, transportation and portable applications. The power
range generated by fuel cells can differ from milliwatts to hundreds of kilowatts. Additionally
there are several types of fuel cells with different operating temperature levels and properties
(see section 2.2.1) leading to an extended area of potential applications. Principally fuel cells
can be used for any power generation application. In this section some selected applications
are categorized and given in subsections to provide an overview of the wide range of fuel cell
applications and required conditions in order to understand the mechanical requirements of
fuel cells.

2.1.1 Stationary Applications

The stationary fuel cell applications denote power generation units for homes, buildings and
auxiliary power units etc. The power range of stationary fuel cell applications can be between
0-500kW [19]. Some types of fuel cells are commonly used for stationary applications due to
their specific properties as handled in section 2.2.1.

The low dynamic response requirement is the basic characteristic property of stationary appli-
cations. Another common property of stationary applications is the usage of natural gas due
to the utilization of existing natural gas infrastructure. Two selected examples of different sized
stationary applications are given in Figure 2.1 and Figure 2.2. The size, operating conditions
and application areas of stationary fuel cells are various, which contributes to diverse
mechanical requirements.

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Introduction

Figure 2.1 CalTech, Bloom Energy (Image Courtesy Figure 2.2 Vaillant CHP System (Image Courtesy
Bloom Energy) Vaillant GmbH & Co.KG)

2.1.2 Portable and Transportation Applications

B fast recharging time and energy density for long-term
operations both of which are key properties for portable and transportation applications. Fuel
cells assure a viable option for battery applications in small power range between 0-100W [19].
The implementation of fuel cells in transportation is one of the foremost fuel cell applications.
Dynamic response requirements are the main characteristic property of portable and
transportation applications. Volume and weight play also an important role as design
parameters. Two selected examples from portable and transportation applications are given in
Figure 2.3 and Figure 2.4. The product range differs from small sized fuel cells for the
recharging of mobile phones to bigger sized fuel cells for power train in automotive
applications. The mechanical requirements of these fuel cell applications depend on the type
of the fuel cell, size of the fuel cell stack and application based specifications, which can be
varied distinctively.

Figure 2.3 Portable fuel cell application

Figure 2.4 Fuel cell car (Image Courtesy Honda Motors)
(Image Courtesy PowerTrekk)

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 Introduction

2.2 Theoretical Background

Basic theory and structure of fuel cells regarding the issues of this work are handled in this
section. For further details it is referred to literature [9, 10, 18-21].

2.2.1 Type of Fuel Cells

Fuel cells can be classified as given in Table 2.1 based on working principle and operating
temperature.

Table 2.1 Type of Fuel Cells and Their Properties

Power
Fuel
Type of Fuel Operating level and Application areas
Electrolyte Transferring
Cell temperature electrical
ion
efficiency

AFC 10-100kW Hydrogen Space, power generation,

Potassium hydroxide
50-200°C
Alkaline fuel cell (KOH) 60-70% OH- military
0.01-
PEM Hydrogen
1000kW
Sulphonic acid Transport, power supplies
Polymer
incorporated into a 50-90°C
electrolyte CHP, space, military
solid membrane 50-68% H+
membrane fuel
cell
Sulphonic acid
incorporated into a 0.001- Portable electronic
DMFC Methanol
solid membrane, or 100kW
50-110°C systems, mobile consumer
Sulphuric acid
Direct methanol solution (Nafion, + electronics
20-30% H
fuel cell Dow)
100-
PAFC Phosphoric acid Hydrogen
5000kW CHP, power generation
190-210°C
Phosphoric acid
(H3PO4) 55% H+
fuel cell
MCFC Molten lithium 1-100MW Hydrogen
carbonate 630-650°C Large stationary power
Molten carbonate
(Li2CO3,K2CO3) 65% CO32-
fuel cell
0.1-
SOFC Hydrogen CHP power generation,
Ceramic, solidoxide, 100MW
800-1000°C
Solid oxide fuel zironia (ZrO2/YO3) transport
60-65% O2-
cell

There are various fuel cell types mainly categorized with respect to electrolyte, which bases
on different transferring ion types. Each of them has distinct advantages and disadvantages
upon other ones such as starting time, operating temperature, efficiency and sensitivity to the
fuel purity. This leads to different application areas as seen in Table 2.1.

PEM fuel cells have low operating temperature, which makes this type of fuel cells appropriate
for a wide range of applications as it can be seen in Table 2.1. Therefore, PEM fuel cells have
been widely focused on by researchers because of its high power density and short starting
time due to the low temperature requirements. These make PEM fuel cells remarkable also for
transportation applications.

2.2.2 Thermodynamics of PEM Fuel Cells

Basically fuel cells are working in a reverse principle of electrolysis. They consume oxygen
and hydrogen and produce water and energy in terms of heat and electricity. The basic

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Introduction

reactions of a PEM fuel cell can be seen in Eq. 2.1-3. The reactions in Eq. 2.1 and Eq. 2.2 take
place at the anode (-) side and cathode (+) side respectively [9, 10].

Eq. 2.1

Eq. 2.2

The overall reaction at cathode side is the sum of both reactions (see Eq. 2.1 and Eq. 2.2) and
can be seen in Eq. 2.3.

Eq. 2.3

The overall reaction is an exothermic reaction and releases an amount of energy as it can be
seen in Eq. 2.3. The higher heating value of hydrogen is taken into account
to calculate the maximum amount of available energy by using liquid water as product [9, 10].
The total amount of available energy cannot be converted to the electrical energy by fuel cell
due to the entropies occurring during the reaction. The maximum amount of electrical energy
generated in a fuel cell corresponds to the Gibbs free energy .

Therefore the overall theoretical fuel cell efficiency can be calculated as in Eq. 2.4 with the
help of Gibbs free energy .

Eq. 2.4

The theoretical potential is calculated as in Eq. 2.5 assuming that all of the Gibbs free energy
is converted into electrical energy. is the number of the participating electrons in the reaction
(for ). represents the Faraday constant ( ), which is a product of the

) and charge of 1
electron ( .

Eq. 2.5

2.2.3 Operating Principles of PEM Fuel Cells

A single PEM fuel cell has the structure as illustrated in Figure 2.5. The hydrogen consumption
side of a fuel cell is negatively charged and called anode. Contrary to anode side, the oxygen
consumption side is called cathode and positively charged. A fuel cell consists of numerous

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 Introduction

components as shown in Figure 2.5. Each of them has significant properties, those affect
directly the efficiency of the fuel cell.

The central component of the PEM fuel cell is the membrane, which acts as electrolyte in the
fuel cell. The membrane is impermeable to gases and has the capability of transmitting
protons. The protons are transferred from the anode to cathode side through the membrane
and the electrons are delivered to the cathode side through the external circuit by which it
produces electricity as illustrated in Figure 2.5. At the cathode side of fuel cell the protons
reunite with oxygen ions to water molecules. The solid state of the membrane at the fuel cell
operating conditions assures several advantages e.g. handling and assembling.

The reactions defined in section 2.2.2 take place at the catalyst layers which are located on
the surfaces of membrane and consist of platinum particles bonded with carbon nanoparticles.

Figure 2.5 The structure and molecular transportation of a PEM fuel cell

The membrane is sandwiched between two porous layers as seen in Figure 2.5, those are
electrically and thermally conductive. The porous layers are commonly called GDL (Gas
Diffusion Layer) and made from carbon cloth or carbon fiber paper. They are acting as
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Introduction

electrodes in fuel cells and have the tasks of gas distribution and transferring the electricity
produced in the fuel cell. The porous structure of GDL ensures the uniform distribution of the
gases on the entire catalyst surface.

2.2.4 Electrochemistry of Fuel Cells

The basic electrochemical reactions and thermodynamics of a PEM fuel cell are briefly
explained before. The polarization curve and electrochemical losses are described in this
section to understand the electrochemical characteristics of fuel cells. Further information can
be found in literature [9-13, 18, 19].

The polarization curve represents the cell current-voltage relationship and is the most
important characteristic property of a fuel cell to evaluate the cell performance. A typical
polarization curve is given in Figure 2.6. Mostly the current is also scaled on the membrane
active area to get the current density. The current density is a standard comparable quantity
for cell evaluation.

Figure 2.6 Polarization Curve of a fuel cell, schematic diagram

The polarization curve releases essential information for fuel cell analysis. As seen in Figure
2.6, a drop in voltage value is expected as a function of generated current. This occurs due to
the irreversible internal losses.

There are several important elements which induce voltage losses during operation of a fuel
cell. The three basic ones are , , and illustrated in three different regions in the
Figure 2.6. They are also listed in Table 2.2 and analyzed further in the following sections.

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 Introduction

Table 2.2 Basic types of voltage losses

Activation losses

Resistive losses

Concentration losses

Understanding the potential losses enables the analysis of the polarization curve structure and
the electrochemical behavior of the fuel cell. It is required to conceive the basics of the
simulations performed in section 4.3.

The cell potential can be defined as in Eq. 2.6. is the theoretical potential and given as
1.23 [V] in Eq. 2.5.

Eq. 2.6

The area under the polarization curve represents the electric power region. The rest of the
available energy is released as heat as depicted in Figure 2.6 and can be calculated by cell
voltage value as dealt in section 2.2.5.1.

2.2.4.1 Activation Loss

Under low current operating conditions the activation losses dominate the cell potential as
shown in Figure 2.6. The activation loss represents the voltage drop required to initiate the
reactions. The activation losses occur at both anode and cathode side of the fuel cell. The
cathodic overpotential is significantly higher than the anodic overpotential. Neglecting the
anodic overpotential, the activation loss can be defined as in Eq. 2.7 [9, 10].

Eq. 2.7

and represent the gas constant and temperature respectively. and are transfer
coefficient and Faraday constant. and represent the current density and exchange current
density respectively.

2.2.4.2 Resistive Loss

The voltage value drops in a linear behavior at moderate current density region as shown in
Figure 2.6. The main contribution is the ohmic resistance of the electrolyte caused by limited
proton conductivity. The electrical resistance of the cell components induce an additional
voltage drop. The contact between electrical conductive fuel cell components leads to the

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Introduction

contact resistance. These result in an overall potential loss which can be calculated using
Eq. 2.8.

Eq. 2.8

The values of electrical and ionic resistance of fuel cell components can be found in section
4.3.2.4.

2.2.4.3 Concentration Loss

The concentration loss denotes the reduction in the reactant concentration on the membrane
surfaces due to rapid consumption. The reactant supply on the electrolyte surfaces reaches to
its limits to cover the reaction rates at higher level of current densities. This results in a potential
drop. Concentration losses dominate the voltage drop at higher current densities and form the
tail of the polarization curve as depicted in Figure 2.6.

2.2.5 Operating Conditions of PEM Fuel Cells

Operating conditions of a PEM fuel cell can be specified due to the type of application. Special
components and control systems are required to preset the conditions for gas flow,
humidifying, cooling etc., mainly for achieving the required power but also the dynamic
response characteristics of a fuel cell. The basic operation conditions of a fuel cell are
expanded in this section with the interest in understanding of the fuel cell dynamics and
simulations made in chapter 4.

2.2.5.1 Operating Temperature

As mentioned before fuel cells release energy in the form of heat and electricity. The amount
of available energy which cannot be converted to electrical power is released as heat, which
is to be removed from the system to get a stabilized temperature profile in the fuel cell. The
heat removal is performed by using a cooling system which depends on the system
requirements. Cooling systems of fuel cells are discussed in detail in chapter 2.3.

The optimal operating temperature of a PEM fuel cell can be between 50°-90°C as it can be
extracted from Table 2.1. Higher operating temperatures in fuel cells result mainly in higher
fuel cell power and efficiency [10, 14, 15]. Nevertheless the highest applicable temperature
cannot be inferred due to degradation of the fuel cell [16, 17]. For each fuel cell design and
application there is an optimal temperature range. The operating temperature of the standard
50 cm2 fuel cell design of ZBT is about 70°C.

The generated heat power ( ) from the fuel cell can be extracted from Eq. 2.9 [10, 13].
is the theoretical thermoneutral potentia
under complete condensation of product water and has a value of 1.482 [V]. and
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