Water Flooding

international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
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Adoption of novel porous inserts in the flow

channel of pem fuel cell for the mitigation of
cathodic flooding
M. Karthikeyan a, P. Karthikeyan a,*, M. Muthukumar b,

V. Magesh Kannan a, K. Thanarajan a, T. Maiyalagan c, Chae-Won Hong d,
Vasanth Rajendiran Jothi d, Sung-ChulYi d,e,**
a
Fuel Cell Energy System Laboratory, Department of Automobile Engineering, PSG College of Technology,
Coimbatore, 641004, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nandha Engineering College, Erode, 638052, India
c
Electrochemical Energy Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, SRM Institute of Science and Technology,
Kattankulathur, 603203, India
d
Department of Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, 133-791, Republic of Korea
e
Department of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology, Hanyang University, Seoul, 133-10791, Republic of Korea
highlights
PEMFC performance has increased by using porous carbon inserts due to better water removal.
Porous sponge inserts have increased performance compared to porous carbon inserts.
Increasing the size of the porous inserts improves the performance of PEMFC.
article info abstract
Article history: Accumulation of excess water in Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is one of the
Received 6 April 2019 significant technical challenges that needs great attention, since it makes the performance
Received in revised form of the fuel cell highly unpredictable and unreliable. To address this formidable task, herein
23 July 2019 by inserting porous inserts in inline and staggered arrangements on the provisions of
Accepted 17 August 2019 landing surface of serpentine flow field, we minimize water clogging in gas diffusion layer.
Available online xxx Two types of porous inserts namely porous carbon inserts (PCI), porous sponge inserts (PSI)
of sizes 2 mm 2 mm x 2 mm (2 mm porous inserts) and 4 mm 2 mm x 2 mm (4 mm
Keywords: porous inserts) are tested for water management of PEMFC, and their respective perfor-
Porous carbon inserts mances are analyzed. The results showed that power density produced by MSI flow field is
Porous sponge insert 9.5% and 11.57% higher than serpentine flow field for 2 mm and 4 mm PCI respectively
Water management while the MSS flow field produced 31.81% and 42.56% higher performance in terms of
2 mm and 4 mm porous inserts power density compared with serpentine flow field for 2 mm and 4 mm PCI respectively.
Modified serpentine flow field with The MSS flow field with 4 mm PCI produced 27.77% higher power density compared with
2 mm PCI. Using porous sponge insert instead of porous carbon insert increases the power
* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author. Department of Chemical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, 133-791, Republic of Korea.
E-mail addresses: apkarthipsg@gmail.com (P. Karthikeyan), author.scyi@hanyang.ac.kr ( Sung-ChulYi).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.08.151
0360-3199/© 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article as: Karthikeyan M et al., Adoption of novel porous inserts in the flow channel of pem fuel cell for the mitigation of
cathodic flooding, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.08.151
2 international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx
inline density by 23.33% for 2 mm porous insert and the power density increases 21.73% for 4 mm
Staggered arrangements PSI in MSS flow field. Increasing the size of PSI from 2 mm to 4 mm increases the power
density by 26.12% in MSS flow field.
© 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
produced and maintained elevated current densities in a

Introduction study by Birgersson et al. [20] among various flow fields such
as interdigitated, foam, counter and co flow channels. Kap-
Increasing global energy demand and rapid depletion of fossil Seung Choi et al. [21] by numerical simulation studied the
fuels accompanied with global warming have spurred the geometric characterization of serpentine design and found
researchers for alternative power generation methods with that geometric modifications strongly influence the PEMFC
different unconventional fuels [1]. One such alternative with performance. Experimental results by Karthikeyan et al. [22]
low environmental impact and lower fossil fuel dependency is on scaling and stacking up of PEMFCs showed 40% drop in
fuel cell technology [2,3]. Although there are several types of power density due to water flooding effect. Interdigitated and
fuel cells, PEMFC is considered suitable for automobile in- Parallel type flow designs are highly susceptible to flooding
dustry and stationary power applications because of its than other flow channels; as concluded from an experimental
optimal operating temperature, faster start up and quick investigation on PEMFCs with area of 25 cm2 and 100 cm2by Ay
response to change in loading conditions. It is also considered Su et al. [23]. A novel gas channel design by Ryo Korosawa
environmental friendly since the byproducts are mainly water et al. [24] had a better water removal rate and 16% increase in
and heat. The current challenges in PEMFC technology are current density since the capillarity action and shear forces
effective management of water and heat produced in the developed by the air flow converted the microgrooves into
system along with cost of catalyst (usually platinum) material, pathways between adjacent grooves. Vazifeshenas et al. [25]
low reliability, production and storage of fuel (hydrogen). numerically studied impact flow field design on performance
Active research is going on for resolving the thermal man- of PEMFC and concluded that a serpentine-parallel flow field
agement issues, which arises during stacking up process, design offered improved performance. Karthikeyan et al. [26]
water management issues arising during scaling of PEMFC, investigated the influence of 2 mm PCI in different channel
minimizing the cost associated with catalyst by utilizing designs and found that the zig flow field pattern with PCI
platinum alloy catalysts and non-noble metal catalysts [4e6]. produced higher current density compared to others. In
The incremental cost reduction in the design and develop- addition, they [27] extended the study to find the impact of the
ment of the single cell system would lead to substantial cost insert technology on large area cells of 70 cm2for flooding
savings in the fabrication of the complicated PEMFC stacks. management. Arun Saco et al. [28]. optimized the flow chan-
Addressing the above issues in the development of high en- nel design with respect to water management in 25 cm2
ergy density PEMFC system, will make a pathway to PEMFC and scaled up 225 cm2 PEMFC. The present study is
commercialization of PEMFCs for automotive and power based on the porous insert technology for enhanced perfor-
generating applications. mance on the scaling up studies. Since the use of 2 mm PCI
This work addresses the water management issues in yields higher performance with water removing capability on
PEMFC. It is imperative that the amount of water should be landing surface of flow field, it is attempted to study the in-
optimum. If the water content is too low, the performance of fluence of increasing the size of the PCI in performance
the PEMFC drops due to the dehydration of the membrane enhancement and water removal capability in PEMFC. Our
[7,8]. If the water content is too high, it causes flooding of previous works [26,27] address the influence of 2 mm porous
PEMFC which prohibits the passage of hydrogen ion thus inserts made of Vulcan carbon (PCI) and compares it with
reducing the performance of PEMFC [9,10]. Serpentine flow serpentine flow field. The effect of increasing the size of the
channel is found to produce enhanced cell performance by porous inserts and changing the materials are not known.
effective transportation of water compared to other flow Herein we propose a new porous material synthesized via
channels through numerical and experimental studies pyrolysis of phenolic foam (porous carbon sponge - PSI) as an
[11e14]. The property of the surface and geometry of the flow ideal substitute for the above said PCI. To study further, the
channels plays an important role in the performance char- effect of increasing the size of PCI and PSI is analyzed on two
acteristics [15,16]. To meet the high power requirements, different flow fields namely MSI flow field and MSS flow field.
usually PEMFCs are scaled up to sizes larger than 70 and Also, their relative performances are compared with serpen-
100 cm2, subsequently during operation at high current den- tine flow field.
sities the PEMFC becomes more prone to cathodic flooding.
Therefore, proper design of flow field is considered as an
important factor in addressing the flooding issue in PEMFC Design configuration in the flow channel
[17,18]. The serpentine flow field design produced a significant
drop in pressure in a numerical study conducting by Nattawut Based on the numerical and experimental investigations from
Jaruwasupant et al. [19]. The interdigitated flow channel previous works [13,15] it is proven that the performance of
international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx 3
serpentine flow field is better due to effective transportation the inserts are illustrated in Fig. 1b and c. A landing width to
water within the cell. Hence, the serpentine flow field has channel width ratio (L:C) of 2:2 is used in these designs for
been selected on anode side for all the experimental studies. easy placement of porous inserts [27,28] even though the
But in cathode side, design modifications of serpentine flow performance would marginally less than L:C of 1:1 [30]. The
field are carried out for better water management as water porous inserts are designed in such a way that it fits along the
flooding is mainly occurring on the cathode side of PEMFC, due dimension of the landing area (Fig. 2). The selected 2 mm
to oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Two novel flow fields porous inserts and 4 mm porous inserts have been fitted along
namely the modified serpentine flow field with inline the grooves machined in the landing of the MSI and MSS
arrangement of porous inserts (MSI) and modified serpentine patterns on the cathode side. Now, the new flow field gets the
flow field with staggered arrangement of porous inserts (MSS) advantages of serpentine flow field, in addition to better water
have been used at cathode side along with serpentine flow management characteristics due to provision of porous in-
field at anode side. serts along the landing surfaces of flow field on cathode side.
Two sizes of PCI namely 2 mm and 4 mm are investigated
experimentally for 25 cm2active area PEMFC. The same is
Scientific evaluation of insert technology repeated with PSI instead of PCI. There is a probability that
increasing the size further may increase the performance of
Karthikeyan et al. [29] reported a passive method of adopting PEMFC. However, increasing the size of porous inserts beyond
porous flow field made from resin-bonded carbon sheet for 4 mm becomes difficult as porous inserts starts to break away
addressing cathodic flooding. The material possessed the or swell at higher sizes.
properties of high porosity, gas permeability and durability The experimental investigation on 25 cm2 PEMFC having
with good electrical and thermal conductivities, playing a novel cathode channel design with porous inserts showed
significant role in the absorption of accumulated water from
the GDL and cathode flow field. Even though the power output
of complete porous flow field is higher than conventional flow
field, the reactant crossover from the channels through the
porous landings obstructs the performance on the high ranges
of ohmic and concentration region. In addition, the machining
and assembling of porous flow field are the challenging tasks.
Considering the above limitations, we endeavored to fabricate
a conventional MSI and MSS flow field types with provisions
for accommodating porous inserts on cathode region.
Fig. 2 e Cross-sectional view of the flow field on anode and
Fig. 1 shows the three flow field patterns considered for the
cathode.
study (serpentine, MSI and MSS, with provisions for placing
Fig. 1 e Flow field designs of 25 cm2 active area (a) Serpentine (b) MSI (c) MSS.
improved performance [26]. Also from the study of influence

of various porosity ranges (60e70%, 70e80% and 80e90%) of
the carbon inserts, it is found that PCI of high porosity range of
80e90% gives high performance on PEMFC. The same have
been experimentally analyzed [27] and proved that the PCI
with 80e90% porosity level has better performance of PEMFCs
with different active areas.
The following flow channel combinations on anode side
and cathode side respectively as shown in Table 1 are
analyzed in the present study.
(i) Serpentine vs Serpentine

(ii) Serpentine vs MSI flow channel for 2 mm and 4 mm PCI
(iii) Serpentine vs MSS flow channel for 2 mmand 4 mm PCI
(iv) Serpentine vs MSS flow channel for 2 mm and 4 mmPSI
Experimental setup
Biologic FCT-50S fuel cell test station
The FCT-50S shown in Fig. 3 is a PC-integrated compact test

station via FC-Lab V.5.22 software. It is electronically pro-
grammed to control the load, pressure, temperature, reactant
flow rate and relative humidity of the reactants accurately. Fig. 3 e Fuel cell test station interfaced with 25 cm2 PEMFC.
The fuel cell test station can be used to read up to 250 W power
with voltage and current up to a maximum of 5 V and 50 A
respectively. Reactant flow rate of up to 0.667lpm on anode 0.5 mol l1 H2SO4 for 1 h and finally rinsed with deionized
side and 1.0 lpm on cathode side can be attained. 99.99% pure water. Then, the Nafion 117 membrane is sandwiched be-
hydrogen is used as fuel and medical grade oxygen is used as tween GDE of25 cm2area (5 5 cm) by hot pressing at 140 C,
oxidant. Pressure gauges which are in line with the outlet of with a pressure of 50 kg/cm2 for 3 min. Initially, an activation
the reactants are used to measure the pressure in the PEMFC. procedure is required for properly humidifying the MEA which
might be dried out during hot pressing.
Preparation and activation of membrane electrode assembly The following procedure is developed for activation of MEA
(MEA) based on a number of trials which included constant power,
constant current and constant voltage modes by using looping
Commercial Nafion 117 membrane and Gas Diffusion Elec- process. Primarily, a voltage pulse with 0.6 V constant voltage
trode (GDE) from Paxi-tech are used for MEA preparation. The maintained for 1 h followed by a looping process, which al-
Nafion 117 membrane segregates the anode and cathode ternates between 0.7 V and 0.5 V for every 20 min until the
compartment of the PEMFC and has a thickness of 183 mm. The value of current produced reaches a maximum for the given
Nafion117 membrane acts as a solid electrolyte and allows voltage. Finally, a current pulse with 200 mA/cm2current
only cations (protons) to pass through it. The catalyst for GDE densityis maintained until the stabilization of voltage takes
is 20% Pt/C with a loading amount of 0.5 mg/cm2 and carbon place. Activation of MEA guarantees maximum power density
paper acts as diffusion medium for the reactants. Initially, since most of catalyst sites are activated during the process.
Nafion 117 membrane of 8 cm 8 cm is taken and pre-treated The investigations on 25 cm2active area PEMFCwith
by 5% by volume of H2O2 solution for 1 h at 60 C and then serpentine, MSI with 2 mm PCI, MSI with 4 mm PCI, MSS with
Table 1 e Configuration of different flow field designs for the experimental studies.
Flow field design with 25 cm2 active area
Anode Cathode
Serpentine flow field with rib to channel ratio of 2:2 Serpentine flow field with rib to channel ratio of 2:2
MSI flow channel with 2 mm PCI with 80e90% porosity
MSI flow channel with 4 mm PCI with 80e90% porosity
MSS flow channel with 2 mm PCI with 80e90% porosity
MSS flow channel with 4 mm PCI with 80e90% porosity
MSS flow channel with 2 mm PSI with 80e90% porosity
MSS flow channel with 4 mm PSI with 80e90% porosity
2 mm PCI, MSS with 4 mm PCI, MSS with 2 mm PSI and MSS

Table 2 e Performance enhancement of 25 cm2 PEMFC
with 4 mm PSI at cathode side are continued after the acti-
due to increasing the size of PCI for different flow field
vation of MEA. designs.
Flow field Power Current Percentage increase in
Procedure of making PCI and PSI
design density density power density compared
(W/cm2) (A/cm2) serpentine flow channel
PCI are prepared by using Vulcan carbon as base material and (%)
Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) as binder material. Vulcan carbon is
Serpentine 0.242 0.676 e
preferred in this work since the electrical and heat conduction flow field
properties of Vulcan carbon is similar to that of graphite MSI flow 0.265 0.748 9.5
which is used for flow plates on which the flow channel is field with
machined. This will help rib surface to act as current collector 2 mm PCI
and simultaneously transport water effectively. Initially, a MSI flow 0.319 0.75 31.81
field with
polymer solution is prepared by dissolving 200 mg of PVA in
4 mm PCI
20 ml de-ionized water. Then, the polymer solution is MSS flow 0.270 0.724 11.57
addeddrop wise to Vulcan carbon until the mixture reaches a field with
clayey state. The mixture is then cast into cubical inserts of 2 mm PCI
side 2 mm and sintered at 300 C for improving the porous and MSS flow 0.345 0.789 42.56
structural properties of the porous inserts. The PSI are pre- field with
4 mm PCI
pared by pyrolysis of phenolic foam. The phenolic foam is
heated at a rate of 100 C/hour to 1000 C in nitrogen atmo-
sphere in order to effect the conversion to carbon. Then the
porous carbon sponge obtained is carefully cut into required
dimensions. Dw 1
P% ¼ X X100% (1)
r volume
Finding the porosity of inserts
Positioning the porous inserts within the flow field
The porosity of the PCI and PSI is found by liquid absorption
method [31], which utilizes a non-reactive liquid such as The inserts with porous range of 80e90% are segregated based
glycerol to fill up the pores. The porosity can be found by on porosity determined by the above formula. The carbon
measuring initial and final weights of porous inserts which in inserts are placed in the grooves with help of a tweezer in flow
turn gives the weight of glycerol (Dw) entered into pores of channels with MSI and MSS designs using a thin layer of
porous insert, density of glycerol (r ¼ 1.261 g/cm3) and volume conductive adhesive which is applied on the bottom face of
of porous inserts (2 mm 2 mm x 2 mm ¼ 8 mm3 for 2 mm the porous carbon insert to ensure that they are fixed firmly
porous inserts and 4 mm 2 mm x 2 mm ¼ 16 mm3 for 4 mm since the porous inserts will block the passage of oxygen flow
porous inserts), the porosity is calculated by using Eq. (1); in cathode side they fall off their corresponding positions.
Fig. 4 e Polarization (VeI) and power density (PeI) curves of PEMFC with 25 cm2active area for different flow fields with 2 mm
PCI.
Positioning the porous inserts in inline pin type flow field is maintained at anode and cathode. The flow rates at anode
coverts it into serpentine flow field with inline arrangement of and cathode are set at 400 ml/min and 200 ml/min respec-
porous inserts. Similarly, placing the porous inserts in stag- tively at 1 bar pressure.
gered pin type flow field coverts it into serpentine flow field
with staggered arrangement of porous inserts. This improves Influence of flow field designs with 2 mm PCI
the performance of PEMFC since it reduces the reactant cross
over while maintaining the water transport property. Also, the The polarization curves showing the performance character-
modified flow filed inherits better reactant consumption istics of PEMFC with 25 cm2 active area for different flow fields
property of flow field thus increasing the performance of with 2 mm PCI are depicted in Fig. 4. From Table 2, analyzing
PEMFC. the output of PEMFCs with serpentine flow field at cathode
side, a peak power density of 0.242 W/cm2is obtained. In
Experimental procedure serpentine flow field, there is high pressure drop that yields
diffusion along with forced convection in the transverse di-
From numerous configurations of experiments available in rection. Hence, reactants spent more time on catalyst sites.
FC-Lab software, ‘Current scan’, ‘Voltage pulse’ and ‘Poten- But due to water logging, the performance of serpentine flow
tiostatic Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (PEIS)’ channel drops over time. For MSI flow filed with 2 mm PCI on
studies have been conducted. The ‘Current scan’ sweeps the cathode side, the maximum power density obtained is
applied current to PEMFC from 0 mA to a desired value in given 0.265 W/cm2, which is 9.5% higher than that of serpentine flow
increments, till final value is reached. This gives an insight field. While analyzing the output of PEMFCs with MSS flow
into maximum power/power density and voltage limits of the filed with 2 mm PCI on the cathode side, maximum power
PEMFC. The ‘Voltage pulse’ increases or decreases the voltage density obtained is 0.270 W/cm2, which is 11.57% higher than
of the PEMFC in preset steps within set range. The ‘PEIS’ can that of serpentine flow field.
measure impedance of the PEMFC by applying a sinus with While placing PCI on landing of modified flow channel, the
respect to a preset potential. configuration is altered to the serpentine flow design. As-
modified flow field configuration inherits the benefit of the
serpentine flow design and it has the ability to absorb the
Results and discussion water in the landing. The PEMFC having MSS with PCI gives
high performance compared to serpentine flow field and MSI
Different flow field modifications of serpentine flow fields with PCI due to better water management.
such as MSI with 2 mm PCI, MSI with 4 mm PCI, MSS with In MSI flow field design, the arrangement of PCI follows an
2 mm PCI, MSS with 4 mm PCI, MSS with 2 mm PSI and MSS order of uniformity. However, in MSS flow field design, the PCI
with 4 mm PSI of active area of 25 cm2 were investigated fixed in provisions made in landing surface do not follow any
experimentally on cathode side with serpentine flow field as uniformity compared to its adjacent landing surface. Howev-
reference. All flow field designs have a common 2:2 landing to er, when an odd or even number of landings are considered,
channel ratio. The PEMFC was tested with temperatures set at the PCIs are uniformly arranged. Due to this, the arrangement
313 K for cell, humidifier and reactants. A stoichiometry of 2.6 of PCI becomes more extensive rather than concentrated as in
Fig. 5 e Polarization (VeI) and power density (PeI) curves of PEMFC with 25 cm2active area for different flow fields with 4 mm
PCI.
the case of MSI flow field design. As a result, in the MSS flow
field, there is globalized absorption of water at the interface
due to increasing the size of PCI for MSS flow field.
between the membrane and GDL covering majority of area for
Type Power Current Percentage increase in
water absorption, but in MSI flow field, only localized water
density density power density due to
absorption is seen. So the peak power density obtained from
(W/cm2) (A/cm2) increased size of porous
insert for same material MSS flow field with PCI is higher than the MSI flow field with
(%) PCI.
MSS flow 0.270 0.724 27.77%
The fixation of PCI on grooves machined on landing of
field with the cathode flow field showed a rise in performance
2 mm PCI compared to serpentine flow field. This enhanced perfor-
MSS flow 0.345 0.789 mance was as a result of the absorption of excess water
field with molecules on the landing surface due to the capillary effect
4 mm PCI
of the PCI porous structure. This clears the regions of water
stagnancy under the landing to a considerable extent and
thereby reduces water flooding in the boundary between
landing and GDL surfaces. PCI after reaching the maximal
water absorbing capacity starts to drain out excess water to
Table 4 e Performance enhancement of 25 cm2 PEMFC the flow channel. This drained water is then carried away to
due to use of PSI instead of PCI of same size in MSS flow outlet of flow channel by sheer force of inlet gas stream.
field.
Type Power Current Percentage increase in Influence of flow field designs with 4 mm PCI
density density power density due to use
(W/cm2) (A/cm2) of porous carbon sponge
Fig. 5 depicts the VeI and PeI curves of PEMFC with 25 cm2
insert of same size (%)
active area for different flow fields with 4 mm PCI. From
MSS flow 0.270 0.724 23.33
Table 2, it is observed that the MSI flow field design with
field with
4 mm PCI has a peak power density of 0.319 W/cm2 which is
2 mm PCI
MSS flow 0.333 0.941 31.81% higher than that of serpentine flow field.
field with The MSS flow field design with 4 mm PCI has a peak power
2 mm PSI density of 0.345 W/cm2 which is 42.56% greater than serpen-
MSS flow 0.345 0.789 21.73 tine flow field. Table 3 shows the improvement in power
field with density due increase in size of the PCI. The power density
4 mm PCI
produced by MSS flow field with 2 mm PCI is 0.270 W/cm2
MSS flow 0.42 1.08
while same flow field with 4 mm PCI produced a power density
field with
4 mm PSI of 0.345 W/cm2. It is observed that increasing the length of PCI
from 2 mm to 4 mm for porous carbon insert increases the
power density by 27.77%.
Fig. 6 e Polarization (VeI) and power density (PeI) curves of PEMFC with 25 cm2active area for MSS flow field design for
2 mm PCI and PSI.
Fig. 7 e Polarization (VeI) and power density (PeI) curves of PEMFC with 25 cm2active area for MSS flow field design for
4 mm PCI and PSI.
This may be due to the fact that increasing the size of the shown in Table 4. The performance characteristic curves for
porous inserts from 2 mm to 4 mm doubles the volume of 2 mm porous inserts in MSS flow channel are shown in
the porous insert thus increasing the water absorbing and Fig. 6 and the same for 4 mm porous inserts are shown in
water retention capacity of a single insert. This in turn Fig. 7. It is observed that using 2 mm porous sponge insert
leads to better performance through better water removal. instead of 2 mm porous carbon insert increases the power
But the PCI tend to dissolve in water over time. This in turn density by 23.33% whereas in case of 4 mm porous insert,
results in decrease in maximum power density obtained the power density increases by 21.73%. This shows that
from PEMFC. Similarly, preparing and fixing PCI becomes using porous sponge insert instead of porous carbon insert
difficult as the size of the insert is increased due to their increases the performance of the PEMFC. This may be due
fragile nature. The porous carbon sponge is relatively easy to the better water absorption property of sponge.
to manufacture and durability is higher compared to PCI. Performance enhancement of 25 cm2 PEMFC due to
Thus, PSI are used in place of PCI and their performance is increasing the size of PSI for MSS flow field is shown in Table 5.
studied. The MSS flow field design with PCI placed on the The maximum power density produced by MSS flow field with
cathode side yields highest power density among the three 2 mm PSI is 0.333 W/cm2 while same flow filed with 4 mm PSI
flow field designs. Hence, further experiments using 2 mm produced a power density of 0.42 W/cm2. It is observed that
and 4 mm PSI instead of PCI are carried out on MSS flow
fields for performance enhancement of PEMFC.
Influence of using PSI instead of PCI
The influence of using PSI instead of PCI in performance of

25-cm2 PEMFC for the same dimensions and MSS flow field

due to increasing the size of PSI for MSS flow field.
Type Power Current Percentage increase in
density density power density due to
(W/cm2) (A/cm2) increased size of porous
insert for same material
(%)
MSS flow 0.333 0.941 26.12%
field with
2 mm PSI
MSS flow 0.42 1.08 Fig. 8 e Nyquist (Cathode) plot of PEMFC with 25 cm2 active
field with area serpentine flow field, MSS flow field designs with
4 mm PSI 4 mm PCI and PSI.
However, the radius of PEIS curve is lowest for MSS flow

Table 6 e Performance enhancement of 25 cm2 PEMFC for
field with 4 mm PSI followed by MSS flow field with 4 mm PCI
different porous insert materials for different sizes in
MSS flow field compared with serpentine flow field. and highest for serpentine flow field. This implies that the
charge transfer resistance is very high for serpentine flow field
Flow field Power Current Percentage increase in
due to water flooding between the interface of GDL and rib
design density density power density compared
(W/cm2) (A/cm2) serpentine flow channel surface of the flow field. Since, this water is removed in MSS
(%) flow field with 4 mm PCI, it has a lower charge transfer
Serpentine 0.242 0.676 e
resistance. The MSS flow field with 4 mm PSI has even lower
flow field charge transfer resistance due to better water removal capa-
MSS flow 0.270 0.724 11.57 bility of PSI. This is in coherence with the results shown in
field with Fig. 7.
2 mm PCI Table 6 and Fig. 9 show the performance comparison of
MSS flow 0.345 0.789 42.56
25 cm2 PEMFC for different porous insert materials for
field with
different sizes in various flow fields. The increase in power
4 mm PCI
MSS flow 0.333 0.941 37.6 density is highest for 4 mm PSI (73.55%) due to better water
field with absorption and higher volume followed in order by 4 mm PCI
2 mm PSI (42.56%), 2 mm PSI (37.6%) and 2 mm PCI (11.57%).
MSS flow 0.42 1.08 73.55
field with
4 mm PSI
Conclusion
Initially, the performance studies of different flow field

increasing the length from 2 mm to 4 mm for porous sponge
configurations viz. serpentine, MSI and MSS flow fields
insert increases the power density by 26.12%.
with 2 mm and 4 mm PCI on cathode side of PEMFC (active
Fig. 8 shows Nyquist plot for cathode side of PEMFC for
area 25 cm2) were conducted.
serpentine flow field, MSS flow field with 4 mm PCI and MSS
PEMFC with MSS flow field shows better performance than
flow field with 4 mm PSI based on PEIS studies. The PEIS
MSI flow field.
studies were conducted at 0.4 V for all the flow channels due
The performance of the PEMFC using PSI was consistent
to prevalence of water lodging at this voltage. From the figure,
after several tests compared PCI. This may be due to the
it can be seen that the ohmic resistances of serpentine flow
durability of carbon sponge being higher than that of the
field, MSS flow with 4 mm PCI and MSS flow field with 4 mm
carbon insert and the better water absorption property of
PSI are 0.025 U, 0.031 U and 0.038 U respectively. The increase
sponge.
in ohmic resistance may be attributed to the use of PCI (Vulcan
Hence, it is concluded that the porous carbon sponge in-
carbon with air voids) and PSI (carbon sponge with air voids)
serts are better than PCI and increasing the size of the
whose resistance is higher than the graphite (solid carbon)
porous insert increases the performance of PEMFC.
used in serpentine flow field.
Fig. 9 e Polarization (VeI) and power density (PeI) curves of PEMFC with 25 cm2active area serpentine flow field and MSS
flow field design with different sizes of PCI and PSI.
Experimental analysis can be conducted by scaling up fields on the performance of a PEM fuel cell. A review. Int J
PEMFC with MSS flow channel using 4 mm PSI for further Hydrogen Energy 2012;37(20):15256e87.
studies. [15] Owejan JP, Trabold TA, Jacobson DL, Arif M, Kandlikar SG.
Effects of flow field and diffusion layer properties on water
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international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he

Adoption of novel porous inserts in the flow

M. Karthikeyan a, P. Karthikeyan a,*, M. Muthukumar b,

article info abstract

produced and maintained elevated current densities in a

improved performance [26]. Also from the study of influence

(i) Serpentine vs Serpentine

Biologic FCT-50S fuel cell test station

The FCT-50S shown in Fig. 3 is a PC-integrated compact test

2 mm PCI, MSS with 4 mm PCI, MSS with 2 mm PSI and MSS

Influence of using PSI instead of PCI

The influence of using PSI instead of PCI in performance of

Table 5 e Performance enhancement of 25 cm2 PEMFC

However, the radius of PEIS curve is lowest for MSS flow

Initially, the performance studies of different flow field

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