Transport in fuel cell systems

General Motors absolutely sees the long-term future of the world being based on a hydrogen economy. Forty-five percent of Fortune 50 Companies will be affected, impacting almost two trillion dollars in revenue. 

In the previous chapter we discussed the polarization curve and all of the losses associated with the generation of current that result in decreased operating efficiency and generation of heat. At a fundamental level, all of these polarizations are a result of transport limitations. The ohmic polarization is a result of ion and electron transport losses, and the concentration and activation polarization is a result of mass transport limitations of the reactant to the catalyst surface and charged particles across the double layer, respectively. Even the crossover and internal short current loss from the expected Nemst potential is a result of transport. Optimization of the fuel cell design therefore must include an optimization of the (desired) modes of transport and minimization of the undesired modes of transport. In this chapter, the modes of transport relevant to fuel cells are described in greater detail. 

---