Abstract
To clarify the impact of surface treatment and gas channel pitch of separator on in-plane temperature distribution and power generation performance of a single-cell polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC), we have measured the in-plane temperature distribution on backside of separator at cathode by thermograph under the power generation with the operation of relative humidity of supply gas of 100 %. We have also investigated the influence of gas flow rate at inlet of the single-cell PEFC on heat transfer phenomena and power generation performance. As a result, the best power generation performance is obtained for the gas channel pitch of 1.0 mm irrespective of surface treatment of separator. The power generation performance of hydrophobic separator is better than that of hydrophilic separator since the performance of discharging the water produced in gas channel is better and the pressure loss of gas channel caused by gas flow is smaller. The temperature drop at the last turned edge of gas channel in observation area with increasing gas flow rate for hydrophobic separator is larger compared with hydrophilic separator by 1-2°C. The higher improvement of power generation performance due to increasing gas flow rate is obtained for gas channel pitch of 1.0 mm compared with gas channel pitch of 0.5 mm irrespective of surface treatment of separator.
