ESE 4003

Hydrogen and Fuel Cells

Adnan Abedeen
Lecturer
Institute of Environment and Power
Technology (IEPT)
Khulna University of Engineering &
Technology (KUET)

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Class Outline
 Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC)
 Alternative fuel in fuel cells
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PEMFC
 Proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), also
known as polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel
cells are a type of fuel cell being developed mainly
for transport applications, as well as for stationary
fuel-cell applications and portable fuel-cell
applications.
 The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is
one of the most elegant types of fuel cells in terms of
its design and mode of operation.
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PEMFC
 It consists of a solid polymeric proton conducting
membrane (the electrolyte), which is sandwiched
between two platinum catalyzed porous gas diffusion
electrodes in a single cell.
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PEMFC
 MEA (Membrane Electrode Assembly)
 A membrane electrode assembly (MEA) is an
assembled stack of proton exchange membranes
(PEM) or alkali anion exchange membrane (AAEM),
catalyst and flat plate electrode used in fuel cells.
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PEMFC
 Components and working principles of PEMFC
 PEMFCs are built out of membrane electrode
assemblies (MEA) which include the electrodes,
electrolyte, catalyst and gas diffusion layers.
 An ink of catalyst are sprayed or painted onto the
solid electrolyte.
 Carbon paper is hot pressed on either side to protect
the inside of the cell and also act as electrodes.
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PEMFC
 Components and working principles of PEMFC
 The pivotal part of the cell is the triple phase
boundary (TPB) where the electrolyte, catalyst and
reactants mix and thus where the cell reactions
actually occur.
 Importantly, the membrane must not be electrically
conductive so the half reactions do not mix.
 Operating temperatures above 100°C are desired so
the water byproduct becomes steam and water
management becomes less critical in cell design.
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PEMFC
 Triple phase boundary
A triple phase boundary (TPB) is a geometrical class of phase
boundary and the location of contact between three different
phases.

 This concept is particularly important in the description of

electrodes in fuel cells and batteries.
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PEMFC
 Chemistry:
A proton exchange membrane fuel cell transforms the
chemical energy liberated during the electrochemical reaction
of hydrogen and oxygen to electrical energy.
 A stream of hydrogen is delivered to the anode side of the
MEA.
 At the anode side it is catalytically split into protons and
electrons.
 This oxidation half-cell reaction or hydrogen oxidation
reaction (HOR) is represented by:
 At the anode:
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PEMFC
 Chemistry:
 The newly formed protons permeate through the polymer
electrolyte membrane to the cathode side.
 The electrons travel along an external load circuit to the
cathode side of the MEA, thus creating the current output of
the fuel cell.
 Meanwhile, a stream of oxygen is delivered to the cathode
side of the MEA.
 At the cathode side oxygen molecules react with the protons
permeating through the polymer electrolyte membrane and the
electrons arriving through the external circuit to form water
molecules.
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PEMFC
 Chemistry:
 This reduction half-cell reaction or oxygen reduction reaction
(ORR) is represented by:
 At the cathode:

 Overall reaction:
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PEMFC
 Basic design of a single cell in a PEMFC
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PEMFC
 Differences between two variants of PEMFC
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PEMFC
 Strengths of PEMFC
The PEMFC is a prime candidate for vehicle and other mobile
applications of all sizes down to mobile phones because of its
compactness.
 Weaknesses

Fuel Cells based on PEM still have many issues:

 1. Water management
 2. Vulnerability of the Catalyst
 3. Limitation of Operating Temperature
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PEMFC
1. Water management:
 Water management is crucial to performance.
 If water is evaporated too slowly, it will flood the membrane
and the accumulation of water inside of field flow plate will
impede the flow of oxygen into the fuel cell.
 But if water evaporates too fast, the membrane will be dried
out.
 Both cases will cause damage to stability and power output so
that water management is a very difficult subject in PEM
systems.
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PEMFC
2. Vulnerability of the Catalyst:
 The platinum catalyst on the membrane is easily poisoned by
carbon monoxide.
 The membrane is sensitive to things like metal ions, which can
be introduced by corrosion of metallic bipolar plates, metallic
components in the fuel cell system or from contaminants in
the fuel/oxidant.
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PEMFC
3. Limitation of Operating Temperature:
 The most commonly used membrane is Nafion, which relies on
liquid water humidification of the membrane to transport protons.
 This implies that it is not feasible to use temperatures above 80 to
90 °C, since the membrane would dry.
 More recent membrane types, based on polybenzimidazole (PBI)
or phosphoric acid, can reach up to 220°C without using any
water management: higher temperature allow for better
efficiencies, power densities, ease of cooling, reduced sensitivity
to carbon monoxide poisoning and better controllability (because
of absence of water management issues in the membrane);
 however, these recent types are not as common.
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PEMFC
Applications:
 The major application of PEM fuel cells focuses on
transportation primarily because of their potential impact on
the environment, e.g. the control of emission of the green
house gases (GHG).
 Other applications include distributed/stationary and portable
power generation.
 Most major motor companies work solely on PEM fuel cells
due to their high power density and excellent dynamic
characteristics as compared with other types of fuel cells.
 Due to their light weight, PEMFCs are most suited for
transportation applications.
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PEMFC
Applications:
 PEMFCs for buses, which use compressed hydrogen for fuel,
can operate at up to 40% efficiency.
 Generally PEMFCs are implemented on buses over smaller
cars because of the available volume to house the system and
store the fuel.
 Furthermore, PEMFCs have the possibility of replacing
batteries for portable electronics, though integration of the
hydrogen supply is a technical challenge particularly without a
convenient location to store it within the device.
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Alternative fuel in fuel cells

 Many types of fuels can be used for different fuel cell types
and systems.
 The cleanest fuel type is hydrogen, but there are many fuel cell
designs that can utilize other fuels.
 Common fuels include hydrogen, methanol, ethanol, and
ammonia.
 The use of fuels other than hydrogen may be beneficial for the
commercialization of fuel cells in the near term but the overall
goal of fuel cell technology is to use pure hydrogen from
renewable sources of energy other than fossil fuels.
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Alternative fuel in fuel cells

 Methanol
 Methanol (CH3OH) is an alcohol-based fuel with an energy
density much greater than compressed hydrogen.
 Methanol is an attractive fuel for fuel cells because the supply
chain can easily provide methanol for fuel cells.
 Approximately 90 percent of the world’s methanol is
manufactured from synthesis gas from natural gas.
 Methanol can also be produced from non-petroleum feed-
stocks such as coal and biomass.
 Approximately 75 percent of methanol is used for chemicals,
and the remaining 25 percent is used for fuels.
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Alternative fuel in fuel cells

Methanol is a popular choice as an alternative fuel for many
reasons:
 Methanol has a higher energy density compared to hydrogen.
 It is perceived to be a safer fuel than hydrogen.
 It may lower hydrogen infrastructure costs.
 Some studies indicate that methanol-powered fuel cells
(DMFCs) are the best option for commercializing fuel cells
because the current infrastructure does not have to change as
much as for hydrogen.
 Other studies indicate that there will need to be as much spent
on setting up a methanol infrastructure as the hydrogen
infrastructure.
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Alternative fuel in fuel cells

Ethanol
 Ethanol is a hydrogen-rich liquid that has a high-
energy density compared to methanol (8.0 kWh/kg
versus 6.1 kWh/kg).
 Ethanol can be produced from a variety of feedstocks.
 In the United States, it is produced mainly from corn
by cooking, fermentation and distillation process.
 Brazil uses sugarcane as the primary feedstock.
 Plants that have higher energy yields, such as
switchgrass and sugarcane are more effective in
producing ethanol than corn.
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Alternative fuel in fuel cells

Ethanol
 Future candidates for ethanol production include
cellulose feedstocks and agricultural wastes.
 Since ethanol can be derived from a variety of
biological sources (as well as through fossil fuels),
this fuel is a good option for overcoming the storage
and infrastructure challenges for fuel cells.
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Alternative fuel in fuel cells

Ammonia
 Ammonia reforming is a thought-provoking option because it
offers clean combustion from a chemical feedstock that is
commercially available as a fertilizer.
 Ammonia contains 17.6 percent hydrogen atoms by weight,
which is similar to the weight content of methanol when
reformed using the partial oxidation reformation.
 Ammonia reforming also has the advantage of only having
hydrogen and nitrogen gas as the by-products.
 Ammonia is easily liquefied under pressure with a liquid
density of 601 g/L at 300 K.
 The liquefaction requires a pressure of only 10 bar at 300 K.
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Alternative fuel in fuel cells

 The ammonia cracking reaction is:
NH3 ⇒ 1/2 N2 + 3/2 H2
 The reaction takes place at over 400ºC, which
requires an external heat source since the exhaust
from a traditional PEM exits at only 80ºC.
 Some of the hydrogen in the reformer’s output stream
can be burned to provide the necessary temperature
for the reformer and to provide the heat needed for
cracking.
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Alternative fuel in fuel cells

 It is also possible to tune the anode utilization of the
fuel cell, so the exhaust stream from the fuel cell has
enough heating value from the unconsumed hydrogen
to supply the required heat if burned.
 An issue with using ammonia as a fuel is the
undissociated ammonia concentration in the product
gas.
 Although the concentration is less than 50 ppm, this
is still enough to damage fuel cells with acid
electrolytes, so an acid scrubber is needed to remove
the final traces of ammonia gas from the cracker.