PRE-DESIGN SIMULATION OF ENHANCED FUEL CELL POWER SYSTEM
Keywords:
Electric potential, fuel cell, exit partial pressure, electrolysis, free Gibb’s energy, reaction time, proton electrolyte membrane.Abstract
This research work simulated a pre-design optimized Fuel Cell for power system. The general background of the fuel cell was discussed. A comparative study was conducted to high-light the best suitable fuel cell type. The governing equations of the selected fuel cell type were discussed. The focus on the work was to assume parameters, generate data for the partial exit pressure of the hydrogen gas, channel length and electric potential through iterations of free Gibbs’s energy formula for conversion of chemical energy to electrical energy. A method of numerical analysis was used to generate result for analysis. Thereafter, there were plots of the partial exit pressure of the hydrogen gas against the channel length and a plot of the electric potential against the channel length. The result showed that the increase in channel length led to exponential reduction in exit partial pressure of the hydrogen gas. Moreover, the increase in channel length led to the drop in electric potential. It was deduced for design purposes or fabrication of the fuel cell, the channel length should be compact and restrained from being lengthy as much as possible to have a significant electric potential output.
