1991 Volume 111 Issue 2 Pages 211-218
This paper presents experimental studies and theoretical considerations on local overheat phenomena of catalysts on some components of a phosphoric acid fuel cells stack exposed to leakage combustible gas.
By blowing air contained with few % of hydrogen, catalysts having low heat wasting capability such as catalysts on a PTFE film can be heated up to glitter and found to set flame to the inflammable PTFE film.
On the other hand, catalysts on massive carbon structure can not heat the carbon even at the local overheat and glitter conditions of the catalysts.
In order to prevent overheat damage of stack components, suppression of hydrogen concentrartion in air, exclusion of useless large catalyst pieces on components and careful usage of infiammble thermal insulator such as PTFE film are proposed.
Application of new detecting method of catalysts on stack components is also recommended.
The transactions of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.B
The Journal of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan