Study on heat and mass transfer of a planar membrane humidifier for PEM fuel cell. (May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yan, Wei-Mon; Lee, Chung-Yuan; Li, Chun-Han; Li, Wen-Ken; Rashidi, Saman
• Is Part Of: International journal of heat and mass transfer. Volume 152(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-05
• Subjects: Planar membrane humidifier -- Fuel cell -- Heat and mass transfer -- Flow arrangement; Heat -- Transmission -- Periodicals; Mass transfer -- Periodicals; Chaleur -- Transmission -- Périodiques; Transfert de masse -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 621.4022
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2020.119538
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0017-9310

Abstract

Highlights: A parametric study is performed on the operation of a planar membrane humidifier. The simulations are performed for both counter-flow and parallel-flow arrangements. There is no major difference between pressure drops of two arrangements. Water recovery ratio of counter-flow arrangement is larger than that of parallel one. Abstract: In this paper, a parametric study is performed on the operation of a planar membrane humidifier (PMH) for the proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The numerical method is used to simulate the heat and mass transfer in the PMH. The simulations are carried out for both counter-flow and parallel-flow arrangements. The effects of different parameters including the inlet temperatures of wet and dry channels and the inlet mass flow rates of these channels on the pressure drop, dew point approach temperature, and water recovery ratio inside the PMH are studied. The results indicate that the counter-flow arrangement provides larger values of the water recovery ratio in comparison with the case of parallel-flow one. For the counter-flow arrangement, the dew point approach temperature is decreased about 49.6% as the inlet temperature of dry channel increases in the range of 20 °C to 50 °C at inlet mass flow rate of the wet channel m ˙ w, i = 9 × 10 −6 kg/s, inlet mass flow rate of the dry channel m ˙ d, i = 18 × 10 −6 kg/s, and inlet temperature at the wet channel Tw, i = 80 °C. There is no major difference between the pressure drops of parallel-flow and counter-flow arrangements.