Research of Fuel Cell Systems Laboratory at Kyushu University

Kohei ITO Group

As a recent topic, our team have succeeded to obtain 3D temperature distribution with thin in-line thermocouples with fine positioning. It figured out that the temperature under the channel was higher than that under the rib. This result connects to the understanding of water behavior, leading to an appropriate water management.

Publications

PEMFC, Water management, Heat management, Hydrogen

Tatsumi KITAHARA Group

Humidifier-less technique has been developed for cost-reduction of the PEFC system. We built in a gas circulation and humidity recover design into a cell, with newly designed gas diffusion layer which contains both hydrophobic and hydrophilic microporous layers. These efforts will realize a high performance PEFC without humidifier.

Publications

PEMFC, Gas diffusion layer, Microporous layer, Water management

Hironori NAKAJIMA Group

Our electrochemical impedance spectroscopy technique helps to grasp and diagnose the heat sources in the SOFC and water behavior in the PEFC(PEMFC) during operation. The heat sources in a SOFC have been formulated with thermal modeling, which can estimate temperature and current distribution in unit cell. This result is accessible for the control of thermal stress and the effective use of electrodes. We design new SOFC structures with high power density and thermo-mechanical durability. We also conduct numerical analysis of water distribution in our newly developed multilayer microporous layers of the gas diffusion layer for the PEFC.

Publications

SOFC, PEMFC, Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy, Heat and mass transfers