Engineering Commons^™

Experimental And Computational Study Of Determining Mass Transport Parameters In Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries, Tugrul Y. Ertugrul

Doctoral Dissertations

Vanadium redox flow batteries are a promising large-scale energy storage technology, but a number of challenges must be overcome for commercial implementation. At the cell level, mass transport contributes significantly to performance losses, limiting VRFB performance. Therefore, understanding mass transport mechanisms in the electrode is a critical step to mitigating such losses and optimizing VRFBs.

In this study, mass transport mechanisms (e.g. convection, diffusion) are investigated in a VRFB test bed using a strip cell architecture, having 1 cm² active area. It is found that diffusion-dominated cells have large current gradients; convection-dominated cells have relatively uniform current distribution from …

Water Transport In Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells: An Exploration Of Net Water Drag In Real Time, Susan Katherine Reid

Masters Theses

Polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs) are a promising alternative energy source. One challenge preventing widespread use of this technology is water management. A balance must be reached between providing sufficient water for membrane ionic conductivity while maintaining low enough water content to mitigate the reduction of available reaction sites in the cathode catalyst layer due to liquid water build up. Much exploration of this area of fuel cell research has been conducted, but the details of water transport in an operating fuel cell are not yet fully understood. The motivation of this work was to elucidate mass transport phenomena occurring …