Tools for designing the cooling system of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) requires a careful management of the heat distribution inside the stack. The proton exchange membrane is the most sensitive element of this thermal management and it must operate under specific conditions in order to increase the lifetime and also the output power of the fuel cell. These last decades, the enhancement of the output power of the PEMFC has led the manufacturers to greatly improve the heat transfer effectiveness for cooling such systems. In addition, homogenizing the bipolar plate temperature increases the lifetime of the system by limiting the occurrence of strong thermal gradients. In this context, using a fluid in boiling conditions to cool down the PEMFC seems to be very suitable for this purpose. In order to compare the thermal performances between a coolant used in single-phase flow or in boiling flow conditions, we have built an experimental set-up allowing the investigation of cooling flows for these two conditions. Moreover, the geometry of the cooling channels is one of the key parameters which allows the improvement of the thermal performances. Indeed, the size or the aspect ratio of these channels could be designed in order to decrease the thermal system response. The sizing of the fuel cell cooling system is of paramount importance in boiling flow conditions because it can modify, not only the pressure losses along the channel and the heat transfer coefficient like in a single-phase flow but also, the onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) and the dryout point or critical heat flux (CHF). Thus, in order to understand some heat transfer mechanisms, which are geometry-dependent, a parametric study was completed by considering flows in four different rectangular channels. Finally, this study allows a better insight on the optimization of the geometrical parameters which improve the thermal performances of a PEMFC, from a cooling strategy aspect point of view.

► Parameters for the using of a liquid inside a PEMFC cooling are presented.
► Cooling with boiling convection highly enhances the heat transfer performances.
► Maximum heat flux value for the boiling case is 4–20 times higher than conventional heat flux encounter in PEMFC.
► Cooling channel geometry impact on heat transfer performances.