| Influence of thermal management and integration with turbomachinery on the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell system
Seung Won Ji, Byung Joon Ryu, Sung Ku Park and Tong Seop Kim*
The Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, vol. 25, no. 7, pp.1861-1870, 2011
Abstract : Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have many good characteristics for small power sources such as low operating
temperature and high power density. In this study, the effects of thermal management on the performance of PEMFC systems using natural
gas fuel, and the effects of integrating PEMFC systems with turbomachines, were investigated. Firstly, performance of various system
configurations differing in the thermal management of reforming and stack cooling processes was comparatively analyzed. Then, various
integrated system combinations with turbomachines (compressors and turbines) were analyzed. We performed a parametric analysis of
the influence of turbine inlet temperature and compressor pressure ratio on system performance, and a 10% difference in efficiency
among four simple PEMFC systems was predicted. Pressurization of the PEMFC with adequate thermal management may improve system
efficiency, while efficiency enhancement from corresponding simple PEMFC systems was hard to achieve in the ambient pressure
integrated systems.
Keyword : Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC); Thermal management; Turbomachinery; Integration; Turbine inlet temperature; Pressure |
