Developing an experimental functional map of polymer electrolyte fuel cell operation

如果不了解燃料电池内反应物、产物、热量和电化学势的变化，就不可能了解燃料电池的运行方式。其结果是，为了获得燃料电池的最佳性能，我们不能将其视为具有正负端子的简单电子设备：我们需要能够了解燃料电池内不同点发生的事情。简单地说，这个项目的目的是开发一种新的方法来想象正在运行的燃料电池内发生的事情。也就是说，开发一种我们可以看到燃料电池不同部分运行得有多好的方法-无论它们运行良好，还是缺少反应物，或者正在经历限制系统寿命的破坏性过程。在这个项目中，我们打算在NPL、Imperial和UCL之前工作的基础上开发一种世界级的仪器，使我们能够研究运行中的燃料电池内发生的事情。我们将使用一个特殊的仪表燃料电池，这将使我们能够实时监测几个非常重要的参数。通过这种方式，我们可以监控燃料电池在正常和非正常运行条件下在不同极端条件下的运行情况。这种极端情况的例子发生在燃料电池启动或关闭时，或者当燃料电池被推到其性能极限时(如果燃料电池为车辆提供动力，则在超车操作期间可能会预期)。这项研究的结果将用于改进燃料电池的设计。硬件将在帝国理工学院设计和制造，并在帝国理工学院和NPL进行测试。伦敦大学学院将建造一个双极板快速成型设施，使我们能够试验不同的流场几何形状，以实现燃料电池测绘硬件测量的参数尽可能均匀的分布。我们将在伦敦大学学院进行建模，以测试使用不同的流场架构对电池性能带来的改善。我们已经与两家英国主要的燃料电池公司Johnson Matthee和Intelligence Energy进行了接触，他们有兴趣利用这项工作的仪器和结果。

It is not possible to understand the way that a fuel cell operates without understanding how reactants, products, heat and electrochemical potential varies within that fuel cell. A consequence of this is that in order to obtain the best performance out of a fuel cell we cannot treat it like a simple electrical device with a positive and negative terminal: we need to be able to understand what is happening at different points within that fuel cell. Put simply, the purpose of this project is to develop a new way to image what is happening within an operating fuel cell. That is, to develop a way in which we can see how well the different parts of the fuel cell is operating - whether they are operating well, or starved of reactants, or undergoing damaging processes which will limit the longevity of the system.In this programme we intend to build on previous work at NPL, Imperial and UCL to develop a world-class instrument to allow us to study what is happening within an operating fuel cell. We will utilise a specially instrumented fuel cell which will allow us to monitor several very important parameters in real time. In this way we can monitor how the fuel cell operates under the different extreme conditions imposed on it during both normal and abnormal operating conditions. Examples of such extreme conditions occur when the fuel cell is started up, or shut down or when the fuel cell is pushed to perform at the limits of its performance (as might be expected during an overtaking manoeuvre if the fuel cell were powering a vehicle). Results of this research will be utilised to improve the design of the fuel cell.The hardware will be designed and built at Imperial College, and tested at both Imperial and NPL. A bipolar plate rapid prototyping facility will be built at UCL which will allow us to experiment with different flow-field geometries in order to achieve as even as possible distribution of the parameters being measured with the fuel cell mapping hardware. Modelling will be performed at UCL in order to test improvements to the performance of the cells brought about by using different flow-field architecturesWe have engaged with two major UK fuel cell companies, Johnson Matthey and Intelligent Energy, who are interested in utilising the instrumentation and results of this work.