A New Bipolar plate of PEM Electrolysis Cell With Uniform Flow and Heat Transfer Fields

Authors

Jianhu Nie, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
K. M. VeepuriFollow
Yitung Chen, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Jianfei Wu, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

8-10-2008

Publication Title

2008 Proceedings of the ASME Summer Heat Transfer Conference

Publisher

ASME

Volume

3

First page number:

591

Last page number:

596

Abstract

Optimization of electrolysis cell for producing hydrogen is dependent of a set of complex physical and chemical processes occurring simultaneously. Similar to fuel cells, it has been demonstrated that these processes are strongly dependent on the fluid dynamics inside the fuel cell. Bipolar plates are important components of PEM electrolysis cells because they are the first stage of the flow distribution system. A non-uniform flow distribution across the bipolar plate surface area will probably lead to an unbalanced use of the precious catalyst, and an overall efficiency of the device lower than expected. In the present work a new design of bipolar plate for the PEM electrolysis cell was proposed and 3-D CFD modeling was preformed. Velocity, temperature and pressure distributions within the bipolar plate were investigated. Numerical simulations showed that the flow uniformity within the designed bipolar plate is greatly improved compared with the baseline bipolar plate for water electrolysis.

Keywords

Electrolytic cells; Electrolysis; Flow (Dynamics); Fluid dynamics; Heat – Transmission; Heat transfer; Hydrogen as fuel; Proton exchange membranes; Proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Disciplines

Energy Systems | Fluid Dynamics | Heat Transfer, Combustion | Mechanical Engineering | Oil, Gas, and Energy

Language

English

Comments

Conference Held: Jacksonville, Florida, USA, August 10–14, 2008

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

Repository Citation

Nie, J., Veepuri, K. M., Chen, Y., Wu, J. (2008). A New Bipolar plate of PEM Electrolysis Cell With Uniform Flow and Heat Transfer Fields. 2008 Proceedings of the ASME Summer Heat Transfer Conference, 3 591-596. ASME.