Free air breathing planar PEM fuel cell design for portable electronics

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2005.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Crumlin, Ethan J
Other Authors: Yang Shao-Horn.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2006
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32866
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author Crumlin, Ethan J
author2 Yang Shao-Horn.
author_facet Yang Shao-Horn.
Crumlin, Ethan J
author_sort Crumlin, Ethan J
collection MIT
description Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2005.
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spelling mit-1721.1/328662019-04-11T01:19:14Z Free air breathing planar PEM fuel cell design for portable electronics Crumlin, Ethan J Yang Shao-Horn. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Mechanical Engineering. Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2005. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 33). PEM fuel cell technology is an energy source that can provide several times more energy per unit volume then current lithium ion batteries. However, PEM fuel cells remain to be optimized in volume and mass to create a minimum size for integration into portable electronics. A planar fuel cell design utilizes the bare minimum in volume and mass over current stacked fuel cell designs. This was done by taking an innovative approach of assembling the fuel cell with just the bare minimum components, a proton exchange membrane, cathode electrode, anode electrode, and gas diffusion layer on both sides of the membrane to assume the role of GDL and current collector. This planar fuel cell design was able to produce a power density over 25mW/cm2. This is an order of magnitude lower then reported air breathing fuel cell values, however the route cause has been isolated to the ohmic losses of the planar fuel cell. Increasing the applied contact forces and creating low resistance electronically conductive grid lines, have shown to contribute to the reduction in ohmic resistance and will be the focus of future research. From this research, a planar fuel cell design has been shown to successful work and there are ways to improve its performance. by Ethan J. Crumlin. S.B. 2006-05-15T20:35:39Z 2006-05-15T20:35:39Z 2005 2005 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32866 62587846 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 33 leaves 1707743 bytes 1706797 bytes application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Mechanical Engineering.
Crumlin, Ethan J
Free air breathing planar PEM fuel cell design for portable electronics
title Free air breathing planar PEM fuel cell design for portable electronics
title_full Free air breathing planar PEM fuel cell design for portable electronics
title_fullStr Free air breathing planar PEM fuel cell design for portable electronics
title_full_unstemmed Free air breathing planar PEM fuel cell design for portable electronics
title_short Free air breathing planar PEM fuel cell design for portable electronics
title_sort free air breathing planar pem fuel cell design for portable electronics
topic Mechanical Engineering.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32866
work_keys_str_mv AT crumlinethanj freeairbreathingplanarpemfuelcelldesignforportableelectronics