In-operando water visualization in fuel cells

目前，氢和燃料电池行业在全球范围内获得了巨大的发展势头，因为所有行业对零排放运输系统的需求日益迫切。然而，燃料电池电动汽车的大规模商业化仍需要在其在消费者市场中扩散之前大幅降低成本。实现这种成本降低的途径是以更高的功率密度运行燃料电池，从而减少它们的总占地面积。然而，这一收益被较高的产水率所抵消，其有效去除变得至关重要。因此，本建议中提出的目标是确定运行燃料电池的多孔介质中的总体液态水分布。这项工作利用了西蒙弗雷泽大学和巴拉德电力系统之间长期的大学-工业燃料电池研究伙伴关系。设想产生新结果的方法是利用X射线计算机断层扫描和专门设计的X射线透明设置，以可视化燃料电池中相关的多个长度尺度上的液态水。所有结果将与巴拉德分享，并根据具体结果，燃料电池设计策略，以减轻或延迟洪水，从而提高燃料电池的性能和耐用性将提出建议。加拿大的利益将通过几种方式累积;最值得注意的是通过向巴拉德转让知识和技术，巴拉德是燃料电池开发和制造的世界领导者，有能力在全球市场利用项目成果实现零排放机动性。

The hydrogen and fuel cell industry is currently gaining significant momentum worldwide due to the increasingly urgent need for zero-emission transportation systems across all sectors. Large-scale commercialization of fuel cell electric vehicles, however, still requires significant cost reductions prior to their diffusion within the consumer market. A route to achieving this cost reduction is to operate fuel cells at higher power density and thus reducing their overall footprint. However, this gain is offset by the higher rate of water production and its efficacious removal becomes crucial. The objective addressed in this proposal is therefore to determine the overall liquid water distribution in the porous media of an operating fuel cell. This work leverages a long-standing university-industry fuel cell research partnership between Simon Fraser University and Ballard Power Systems. The approach envisioned to yield novel results is to utilize X-ray computed tomography and specially designed X-ray transparent setups to visualize liquid water across multiple length scales of relevance in fuel cells. All results will be shared with Ballard and depending on the specific outcomes, fuel cell design strategies to mitigate or delay flooding and hence improve fuel cell performance and durability will be suggested. The benefits to Canada will be accrued in several ways; most notably through knowledge and technology transfer to Ballard, a world leader in fuel cell development and manufacturing that has the capacity to exploit the project outcomes across worldwide markets for zero-emission mobility.