A review of recent development: Transport and performance modeling of PEM fuel cells

This study reviews technical papers on transport and performance modeling of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells during the past few years. The PEM fuel cell is a promising alternative power source for various applications in stationary power plants, portable power device, and vehicles. PEM fuel cells provide low operating temperatures and high-energy efficiency with zero emissions. A PEM fuel cell is a multiple distinct parts device and a series of mass, momentum and energy transport through gas channels, electric current transport through membrane electrode assembly and electrochemical reactions at the triple-phase boundaries. These transport processes play crucial roles to determine electrochemical reactions and cell performance, so studies on the transport and performance modeling have been done deeply. This review shows how these modeling studies offer valid findings for transport and performance modeling of PEM fuel cells and recommendations that can be applied in enhancing transport processes for improving the cell performance.