Accumulation and continuous removal of impurities in fuel cells: I. One-dimensional model

✍ Scribed by R. W. Lyczkowski; Dimitri Gidaspow

• Publisher: American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• Year: 1971
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 763 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0001-1541
• DOI: 10.1002/aic.690170528

✦ Synopsis

A mode of operation and o design technique hove been developed which permit the attainment of continuous purging of impurities directly from the gas compartments of a fuel cell-either anode, cathode, or both-with the realization of minimum reactont loss, most stable voltage and current output, and operating conditions with respect to reactant gas flow and electrolyte inventory. We have found o way to eliminate the complex periodic purge valves and attendant electronics by o fuel cell system which i s both simple in structure and operation and which has a high degree of reliability.

The technique was suggested by the observation that in dead-ended fuel cell gas compartments, the inert impurities present i n reactant gases tend to accumulate at the dead-ended portion of the cell. Hence a small amount of bleed should be placed there. This observation has been made onolyticolly by solving numerically a system of two partial differential equations simultaneously.