Design of a novel high-efficiency water separator for proton exchange membrane fuel cell system. (26th February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ma, Tiancai; Yang, Yanbo; Lin, Weikang; Yang, Yuehua; Jia, Wenya; Zhang, Jiaming
• Is Part Of: International journal of hydrogen energy. Volume 44:Number 11(2019)
• Page Start: 5462
• Page End: 5469
• Publication Date: 2019-02-26
• Subjects: Proton exchange membrane fuel cell system -- Water separator -- Cyclone separator -- High efficiency -- Computational fluid dynamics; Hydrogen as fuel -- Periodicals; Hydrogène (Combustible) -- Périodiques; Hydrogen as fuel; Periodicals; 665.81
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.10.109
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0360-3199

Abstract

Abstract: In the fuel cell system, hydrogen recirculation subsystem is usually used to increase efficiency of hydrogen usage. While the hydrogen recirculation subsystem is a closed circuit that the water might be accumulated, water separator is used necessarily to separate the water and gas at the anode side. As the poor swirling effect caused by the guide vane in commercial separator, a novel water separator for proton exchange membrane fuel cell system is designed and the flow field characteristics of the separator are gained by computational fluid dynamics. The structure of volute inlet and overflow pipe in the novel separator can enhance the swirling flow and increase the tangential velocity. Based on the results, the separation efficiency and steady performance throughout the flow-rate range can be improved by the novel water separator. Highlights: A novel water separator of high efficiency was designed for PEMFC system. Volute inlet and overflow pipe enhanced the swirling flow by more than 2.5 times. Water separation efficiency of the novel separator was improved to nearly 100%.