Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society (한국수소및신에너지학회논문집)

The Korean Hydrogen and New Energy Society (한국수소및신에너지학회)
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Effect of Double Porous Layer on a Polymer Electrolyte Unitized Regenerative Fuel Cell

수전해·연료전지 가역셀에서 이중 가스 확산층의 효과

  • Hwang, Chul-Min (Department of Energy & Environment Technological Development, Innovation KR Co., Ltd.) ;
  • Park, Dae-Heum (Research & Development Division, Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd.) ;
  • Jung, Young-Guan (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kumoh National University of Technology) ;
  • Kim, Kyunghoon (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kumoh National University of Technology) ;
  • Kim, Jongsoo (Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials)
  • Received : 2013.06.20
  • Accepted : 2013.08.31
  • Published : 2013.08.31
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Abstract

TUnitized reversible fuel cells (URFC) combine the functionality of a fuel cell and electrolyzer in one unitized device. For a URFC with proton exchange membrane, a titanium (Ti)-felt is applied to the gas diffusion layer (GDL) substrate at the oxygen electrode, and additionally titanium (Ti)-powders and TiN-powders are loaded in the GDL substrate as a micro porous layer (MPL). Double porous layer with TiN MPL was not acceptable for the URFC because both of fuel cell performance and electrolysis performance are degraded. The double porous layer with Ti-powder loading in the Ti-felt substrate influence rearly for the electrolysis performance. In contrast, the change of pore-size distribution brings a significant improvement of fuel cell performance under fully humidification conditions. This fact indicates that the hydrophobic meso-pores in the GDL play an important role for mass transport.

Keywords

References

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