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Thermoelectric Generator as the Waste Heat Recovery Unit of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell: A Numerical Study

Author

Listed:
  • Hossein Pourrahmani

    (Group of Energy Materials, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1951 Sion, Switzerland)

  • Hamed Shakeri

    (School of Mechanical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran 16846-13114, Iran)

  • Jan Van herle

    (Group of Energy Materials, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1951 Sion, Switzerland)

Abstract

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a prominent environmentally friendly alternative candidate to internal combustion engines in automotive applications. The recovery of the waste heat of light-duty diesel engines has been investigated recently, which is similarly relevant for PEMFCs. Thermoelectric generators (TEG) applied on the stack’s walls have been already proposed and tested as a cooling method for small scale applications of the PEMFC. For the medium scale usages of the PEMFC stack, TEG technology may be further used to recover heat lost through the cooling water required for stack thermal management, which was the focus of the present study. Using an agglomerate model for the PEMFC and a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) thermal model for the TEG heat exchanger unit, the operation and performance of the PEMFC stack and heat recovery unit were simulated, respectively. After validation, results indicated that the transferred heat from the PEMFC to the cooling channel increased the temperature of the coolant from room temperature to 330.5 K at the current density of 0.8 A/cm 2 . CFD analysis revealed that 37.7 W of the heated wasted by the PEMFC stack could be recovered by the currently available TEG material and geometry.

Suggested Citation

  • Hossein Pourrahmani & Hamed Shakeri & Jan Van herle, 2022. "Thermoelectric Generator as the Waste Heat Recovery Unit of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell: A Numerical Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-21, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:9:p:3018-:d:798149
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Philippe Poure & Mashiul Huq, 2022. "Thermoelectric Generator for Waste Energy Recovery in Transport," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-2, October.
    2. Eugenio Meloni & Giuseppina Iervolino & Concetta Ruocco & Simona Renda & Giovanni Festa & Marco Martino & Vincenzo Palma, 2022. "Electrified Hydrogen Production from Methane for PEM Fuel Cells Feeding: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-34, May.
    3. Suprava Chakraborty & Devaraj Elangovan & Karthikeyan Palaniswamy & Ashley Fly & Dineshkumar Ravi & Denis Ashok Sathia Seelan & Thundil Karuppa Raj Rajagopal, 2022. "A Review on the Numerical Studies on the Performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) Flow Channel Designs for Automotive Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-21, December.

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