The Environmental Engineering Hub

For a fuel cell to run efficiently, there needs to be proper control of its temperature and heat generation. Some fuel cells work well in room temperature, but others require temperatures as high as 1000 ºC, and any value outside of the accepted range results in lowered efficiency of the device. Higher temperatures lead to faster kinetics and voltage, and lower temperatures cause shorter warm-up times, lower thermodynamical stresses and retardation of corrosion and other temperature-dependent processes. For fuel cells, higher temperatures also mean greater vaporization of the liquid water and, as a result, more of the waste heat becomes the latent vaporization heat.  The temperature profile in a fuel cell is ever-changing, even when the flow rate of the gases is constant. That happens because of the transfer of heat and phase change of some reactants. The accurate prediction of the temperature and heat distribution is essential to determine temperature-dependent parameters a...