PEM fuel cells current status

Shao Y, Liu J, Wang Y, Lin Y (2009) Novel catalyst support materials for PEM fuel cells current status and future prospects. J Mater Chem 19(l) 46-59... 

Technical and economic targets were developed for direct hydrogen transportation PEM fuel cell systems and they are indicated along with the status in Table 3, as well as in Appendix A. The targets and status of gasoline-fueled systems remain the same as in FY 2001. Note that the Freedom CAR fuel cell technical team is currently considering revisions to all technical targets. 

Various fuel cell modeling and simulation reviews can be found in literature and elucidate the modeling approaches, strategies, computational single-, and multi-domains, governing equations, boundary conditions, initial conditions, simplifications, and commonly used assumptions [2-18]. This work reviews the current status of phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC) and HT-PEM fuel cell modeling and simulation. 

Tao WQ, Min CH, Liu XL et al (2006) Parameter sensitivity examination and discussion of PEM fuel cell simulation model validation part I. Current status of modeling research and model development. J Power Sources 160 359-373... 

Transparent fuel cells [77-84] are widely used to characterize the water removal process on the flow field of a PEM fuel cell. As they allow optical access to the flow field, one can observe the formation of water droplets and the water removal process in the flow channels. A transparent cell usually includes a transparent plastic end plate, a copper plate to serve as the current collector, and a flow field plate on the anode side, cathode side, or both, as shown in Fig. 3.22. For the test setup, a high-speed camera is required to record the status of liquid water in the flow channels. Thus, water flooding at different stages or under various conditions can be recorded, as shown in Fig. 3.23 [81 ]. In this way, the visualization of water transport and removal in a transparent cell can be used to optimize the operating conditions, the structural designs of the flow field and gas diffusion layer, and the screening of materials for the gas diffusion layer. 

The current technological status of small (0.5-5 kWe) PEM, SOFC, AFC and PAFC fuel cell stationary units, was recently reviewed by Staffed et al. (2007) (Table 3.12). The system efficiency refers to electrical losses of the fuel-cell system (fans, pumps, control) and the current conditioning unit (transformer, inverter), while total efficiency refers to both electrical power and heat cogeneration. Cost estimations refer to mass-produced fuel-cell systems according to today s state-of-the-art manufacture technologies and materials, while current retail prices of demonstration fuel-cell systems are in the range of 10,000-100,000 / kWe (Staffed et al., 2007). 

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