TY - JOUR
KW - Modeling
KW - Carbon dioxide
KW - Fuel cell
KW - Water management
KW - AEMFC
KW - Alkaline
KW - Hydroxide
AU - Huai-Suen Shiau
AU - Iryna V Zenyuk
AU - Adam Z Weber
AB - <p>Water management is a serious concern for alkaline-exchange-membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) because water is a reactant in the alkaline oxygen-reduction reaction and hydroxide conduction in alkaline-exchange membranes is highly hydration dependent. In this paper, we develop and use a multiphysics, multiphase model to explore water management in AEMFCs. We demonstrate that the low performance is mostly caused by extremely non-uniform distribution of water in the ionomer phase. A sensitivity analysis of design parameters including humidification strategies, membrane properties, and water transport resistance was undertaken to explore possible optimization strategies. Furthermore, the strategy and issues of reducing bicarbonate/carbonate buildup in the membrane-electrode assembly with CO<sub>2</sub> from air is demonstrated based on the model prediction. Overall, mathematical modeling is used to explore trends and strategies to overcome performance bottlenecks and help enable AEMFC commercialization.</p>
BT - Journal of The Electrochemical Society
DA - 07/2017
DO - 10.1149/2.0531711jes
IS - 11
LA - eng
N2 - <p>Water management is a serious concern for alkaline-exchange-membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) because water is a reactant in the alkaline oxygen-reduction reaction and hydroxide conduction in alkaline-exchange membranes is highly hydration dependent. In this paper, we develop and use a multiphysics, multiphase model to explore water management in AEMFCs. We demonstrate that the low performance is mostly caused by extremely non-uniform distribution of water in the ionomer phase. A sensitivity analysis of design parameters including humidification strategies, membrane properties, and water transport resistance was undertaken to explore possible optimization strategies. Furthermore, the strategy and issues of reducing bicarbonate/carbonate buildup in the membrane-electrode assembly with CO<sub>2</sub> from air is demonstrated based on the model prediction. Overall, mathematical modeling is used to explore trends and strategies to overcome performance bottlenecks and help enable AEMFC commercialization.</p>
PY - 2017
SP - E3583 
EP -  E3591
ST - J. Electrochem. Soc.
T2 - Journal of The Electrochemical Society
TI - Elucidating Performance Limitations in Alkaline-Exchange- Membrane Fuel Cells
VL - 164
SN - 0013-4651
ER -