Testing and evaluation of aluminum coated bipolar plates of pem fuel cells operating at 70 °C

Abstract Corrosion resistant metal treated bipolar plates with higher rigidity and electrical conductivity than graphite were developed and tested for polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell applications. Four replicas of single cells were fabricated; two of graphite composites bipolar plates and the other two were coated aluminum. An E-TEK Series 14-W MEA with carbon cloth GDL, Nafion 112, 1.0 mg cm−2 platinum loading (anode and cathode) and 6.45 cm2 active electrode areas, was fitted to each cell and operated under identical conditions. The obtained data from the two graphite cells were averaged and plotted and the other two aluminum cells’ data were similarly treated and plotted on the same graph for comparison. Generally, the treated metallic bipolar plate provided at least a 22% savings in hydrogen consumption in comparison to graphite. This is attributed to the lower bulk and surface contact resistance of the coated aluminum plates used in this study in relation to graphite. The results of the lifetime testing conducted at 70 °C cell temperature under cyclic loading condition showed no indication of power degradation due to metal corrosion for at least 1000 h.

[1]  P. J. Sebastian,et al.  Conducting polymer-coated stainless steel bipolar plates for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) , 2005 .

[2]  Suzhen Luo,et al.  Corrosion behavior of TiN coated type 316 stainless steel in simulated PEMFC environments , 2004 .

[3]  W. P Teagan,et al.  Cost reductions of fuel cells for transport applications: fuel processing options , 1998 .

[4]  Jeffrey H. Morehouse.  Thermally Regenerative Hydrogen/Oxygen Fuel Cell Power Cycles , 1986 .

[5]  Akira Taniguchi,et al.  Highly water-proof coating of gas flow channels by plasma polymerization for PEM fuel cells , 2005 .

[6]  Paola Costamagna,et al.  Quantum jumps in the PEMFC science and technology from the 1960s to the year 2000 ☆: Part II. Engineering, technology development and application aspects , 2001 .

[7]  Viral S. Mehta,et al.  Review and analysis of PEM fuel cell design and manufacturing , 2003 .

[8]  John Newman,et al.  Optimization of potential and hydrogen utilization in an acid fuel cell , 1979 .

[9]  M. A. Rosen,et al.  An energy-exergy analysis of the Koppers-Totzek process for producing hydrogen from coal☆ , 1987 .

[10]  Ching-Han Huang,et al.  Corrosion-resistant component for PEM fuel cells , 2004 .

[11]  Allen M. Hermann,et al.  Bipolar plates for PEM fuel cells: A review , 2005 .

[12]  J. Bockris,et al.  The origin of ideas on a Hydrogen Economy and its solution to the decay of the environment , 2002 .

[13]  J. Wind,et al.  Metallic bipolar plates for PEM fuel cells , 2002 .

[14]  R. Borup,et al.  Design and Testing Criteria for Bipolar Plate Materials for Pem Fuel Cell Applications , 1995 .

[15]  EunAe Cho,et al.  Performance of a 1 kW-class PEMFC stack using TiN-coated 316 stainless steel bipolar plates , 2005 .

[16]  F. Barbir,et al.  Efficiency and economics of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells , 1997 .

[17]  Ayoub Kazim.  A novel approach on the determination of the minimal operating efficiency of a PEM fuel cell , 2002 .

[18]  Shihab S Asfour,et al.  Solar–hydrogen energy system for Egypt , 1999 .

[19]  John A. Turner,et al.  Ferritic stainless steels as bipolar plate material for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells , 2004 .