Abstract:
Characterization of materials used for the fabrication of fuel cell components was made
and reported. Electrodes have been designed for the single unit fuel cells and for fuel cell
stacks. Designing, of single unit fuel cell was completed by designing the process and
hardware of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) for a catalyst area of 16
cm 2 , 25 cm 2 , 50 cm 2 , 100 cm 2 and single cells were fabricated and tested accordingly .
The presented work is the development of fuel cell stacks with the main focus on
the conception, design and production of bipolar plates for polymer electrolyte
membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). As a conclusion of this development, a 3 cell stack has
been fabricated and tested.
The research work on the designing and analysis of 6 geometries of the flow
fields in PEMFC bipolar plates have been conducted and the results of this study have
been compiled, evaluated and presented.
Bipolar plate material was developed by the impregnation of porous graphite with
styrene, epoxy resin and cyanoacrylate. The porosity measurement results revealed that
porosity of porous graphite plate has been completely removed. Moreover, a composite
material was also synthesized by using a vinyl ester thermosetting resin, graphite
powder, and poly (1, 4-phenylene sulfide). Both of the materials were characterized to
determine and compare their physical properties such as density, mechanical properties,
thermal stability and electrical properties. These materials were characterized to
determine and compare with the competitive composite materials developed by the
commercial developers. Thermal studies by TG-DTA-DTG of composite bi-polar plate
were carried out in air atmosphere to find out the mode of degradation and the basis of its
stability. The intermediates formed during decomposition process were also identified.
A system was developed and operated for the study and determination of the life
cycle assessment and feasibility of the different commercially available absorbent and
adsorbent materials and a molecular sieve, required for the removal of sulfur compounds
and mercaptans etc. from the natural gas feed stock, as these compounds impose severe
poisoning effect on the activity and life of the catalysts and other fuel cell system
components. The thesis is composed of two volumes, Volume-1 (Page# 1 to Page# 166)
and Volume-2 (Page# 167 to Page 351).