Performance Studies of PEFCs Incorporating Non-woven Metal Fabric as Flow Fields for Even Supply of Reactants

Abstract

Previous research shows that the power density of polymer electrolyte fuel cell can be increased by applying porous metal as a flow fields, supplying reactants evenly to the whole electrode areas as compared to the operation with conventional groove type flow fields. This paper investigates the effect of introducing none-woven metal fabric as flow fields. The investigations here revealed that the metal fabric shows higher maximum power output than groove due to a reaction resistance reduction. The effects above was observed in various flow feeds. The reduction of the resistance was significant in cathode, due to better water transport.