A Numerical Study of the Influence of Gas Diffusion Layer Porosity on Cell Performance of Counter Flow Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

This study characterizes the cell performance of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) considering the counter flow of hydrogen and air. The effects of porosity of anode and cathode Gas Diffusion Layers (GDL) on current density, power density and mass transfer were investigated. Half-cell model was employed for computational analysis and parallel flow was simulated for process validation. The results showed that the porosity affects the limiting current density especially in low cell voltages. Such condition is achievable in practice by diminishing the oxygen diffusion in the GDL. Also, the simulations confirmed an increase in power density by about 6 percent, when increasing the porosity of GDL by about 20 percent in the counter flow of PEMFC.