Advancing Fuel Cells Technology via Analogous Heat Exchanger Design Principles

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The proposal is for a Minority Research Planning Grant to initiate an investigation to apply heat exchanger design principles to improve fuel cell design practices. Topics to be pursued include the allocation of electroactive area over which charge transport occurs, the use of "cathode fins" to reduce charge transfer resistance, thermodynamic optimization via a modern Second Law analysis of the fuel cell transport processes, and the application of thermoeconomics analysis for cost-effective cell stack design. The planning grant should serve to guide the PI in the development of more extensive research proposals in this technically important area. The research activity will be coupled to an existing educational outreach program that will help to promote science and engineering graduate education to underrepresented minority students.