Thermal Performance of a Hydrogen PEM Fuel Cell Cooling Plate: An Experimental Study

PEM fuel cells are promising renewable energy conversion systems. Improving their thermal performance significantly enhances their stability, durability, and lifetime. In this study, an aluminium cooling plate was produced with a serpentine flow field to simulate the cooling process of a PEM fuel ce...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Arear, Ward F., Zeiny, Aimen, Al-Baghdadi, Maher A.R. Sadiq
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Experimental
Fuel cells
hydraulic performance
Hydrogen
Power demand
Renewable energy sources
Stability analysis
Temperature distribution
Thermal engineering
thermal Performance
Thermography
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Summary:PEM fuel cells are promising renewable energy conversion systems. Improving their thermal performance significantly enhances their stability, durability, and lifetime. In this study, an aluminium cooling plate was produced with a serpentine flow field to simulate the cooling process of a PEM fuel cell experimentally. The thermal performance of water as a coolant with different flow rates was analysed. A susceptible thermal camera was used to record the temperature distributions on the cooling plate. The results show that increasing the volumetric flow rate decreases the temperature difference between the inlet and outlet temperatures of water by 76% at 50 ml/min compared to 10 ml/min. Furthermore, the temperature distribution becomes more homogeneous when the flow rate increases. However, the pressure drop increases linearly as the flow rate increases with a maximum increase of 400% at 50 ml/min compared to 10 ml/min, leading to an increase in the pumping power consumption.
ISSN:2831-753X
DOI:10.1109/IICETA54559.2022.9888344