A review on the approaches applied for cooling fuel cells

doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2019.05.032

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

Volume 139, August 2019, Pages 517-525

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2019.05.032 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
Phase-change cooling approaches have the best heat transfer capacity for cooling fuel cells.
•
Configuration of cooling systems noticeably affects the cooling efficiency.
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Using heat pipe as heat spreader is an efficient approach to enhance passive cooling.
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Nanofluids are useful to improve heat transfer of fuel cells liquid cooling.

Abstract

Fuel cells are employed for wide variety of applications due to their several advantages such as low carbon dioxide emission, no requirement for moving components and high efficiency. In order to have efficient performance and prevent damaging the fuel cells’ components, appropriate cooling is required. Various methods are applied for cooling such as passive methods, air cooling, liquid cooling and phase change cooling. In the present article, a comprehensive review is carried out on the cooling approaches mentioned above and their advantages and disadvantages. In addition, the methods used for enhancing the cooling are represented. The results show that the configuration of cooling system noticeably influence their performance. Moreover, using some ideas such as applying nanofluids, as the fluids with enhanced thermal properties, can be useful for heat transfer enhancement. Improving the efficiency of the cooling approaches has some advantages such as reducing the size and weight of the system, enhancement of fuel cell performance and more uniform temperature distribution of stack.

Graphical abstract

Introduction

Unfavorable environmental impact of using fossil fuels and conventional methods for electricity production necessitate the development of low carbon technologies for energy systems and power generation [1], [2], [3]. As shown in Fig. 1, the amount of carbon dioxide emission of the world increased from approximately 23,623 Mt in 2000 to more than 33,443 Mt in 2017 [4]. Since the emission of carbon dioxide is mainly attributed to utilization of fossil fuels and low efficiency of the technologies, the importance of employing clean energy systems and optimization of energy systems is increased [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]. Fuel cells, in addition to other renewable energies such as wind and solar [10], [11], [12], [13], are appropriate alternatives for current power production systems to overcome the mentioned problems. Fuel cells, as a candidate for power generation systems, have many advantages including independency from fossil fuels, high efficiency and low emission of greenhouse gases; moreover, since there is no mobile component, they are able to operate in silence [14], [15], [16]. In addition, fuel cells can be integrated with other thermal cycles, which results in higher efficiency [17], [18], [19]. Ahmadi et al. [20] proposed a plan recovered heat from a fuel cell and integrated it with a supercritical carbon dioxide turbine and liquefied natural gas cycle. The modeling of the proposed cycles revealed that the power generation by the mentioned system was 39% higher in comparison with standalone fuel cell. In another study [21], a fuel cell was coupled with turbine-organic Rankine cycle and exergy analysis was carried out on it. The exergy efficiency of the overall plant obtained equal to 39.9%. All of the mentioned studies show the flexibility of fuel cells for using in various existing power plants.

There are various types of fuel cells including Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM), Solid Oxide (SO), phosphoric acid, and etc [22], [23], [24], [25]. Fuel cells are applicable for different purposes such as vehicle, aerospace systems, and power generation [26], [27]. Several fuels can be used as feed for fuel cells; however, hydrogen, due to it zero emission, is the most appropriate one [20], [28], [29]. The performance of the fuel cells depends on numerous factors including their fuel, operating conditions, and the types of electrode. Each type of fuel cells has an appropriate range for working temperature [30], which demonstrates the importance of their thermal management. Various thermal management approaches have been tested for cooling the fuel cells such as using heat pipes, inserting cooling channels and using plate with high thermal conductivity.

In this work, an overview of fuel cell technologies and their trend will be represented. Afterwards, due to the importance of thermal management of fuel cells, the various methods used for cooling fuel cells will be reviewed and investigated. Finally, according to the results of the literature review, some recommendations will be represented for future scientific researches.

Section snippets

An overview of fuel cell technology

Fuel cells are cleaner energy systems compared with the technologies which work based on the combustion of fossil fuels. Moreover, compared with solar and wind energies, they have some advantages. Its capacity factor is 95% while this value for solar and wind are 25.8% and 17.5%, respectively [31]. In addition, according to some economic criteria, it is more appropriate since its payback period is 7.9 years while the corresponded values for solar and wind are 8 and 36.5 years, respectively [31]

Cooling approaches

Various methods are applicable for cooling the fuels cells such as using air and liquid flow, heat spreader and phase change heat transfer [15]. Studies have shown that approximately 8% of stack system cost of some fuel cells belongs to the thermal management [35]; therefore, selecting appropriate technology is important on the basis of technical and economical criteria. As illustrated in Fig. 3, depending on the capacity of fuel cells, an appropriate cooling method must be selected. Each type

Recommendations for future studies

In this study, several conventional methods, in addition to the novel approaches, for efficient cooling of fuel cells are reviewed. According to the outcomes of these researches, some ideas can be suggested for future studies. In the cases of using forced and free convection heat transfer approaches, testing various configurations of fins can be useful to find the most efficient ones. Moreover, with the development of constructal theory [77], [78], [79], [80], [81], [82], [83], [84], [85], [86]

Conclusion

In this article, various approaches applied for cooling fuel cells are reviewed and compared. According to the literature review, there are four main cooling methods, including air cooling, passive cooling, liquid cooling and phase change cooling. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are represented. The main results of the study can be summarized as:

(1)
In the case of using air cooling approach, flow control and using flow of air in an appropriate path results in better heat transfer

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the reviewers for their careful, unbiased and constructive suggestions, which led to this revised manuscript.

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ReviewA review on the approaches applied for cooling fuel cells

Highlights

Abstract

Graphical abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

An overview of fuel cell technology

Cooling approaches

Recommendations for future studies

Conclusion

Declaration of Competing Interest

Acknowledgements

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Review
A review on the approaches applied for cooling fuel cells