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Modeling Polybenzimidazole/Phosphoric Acid Membrane Behaviour in a HTPEM Fuel Cell

C. Siegel[1,2], G. Bandlamudi[1,2], and A. Heinzel[1,2]
[1]Zentrum für BrennstoffzellenTechnik (ZBT) gGmbH, Duisburg, Germany
[2]Institut für Energie- und Umweltverfahrenstechnik, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany
Published in 2008

Phosphoric acid doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes are commonly used in today’s high-temperature polymer-electrolyte-membrane (HTPEM) fuel cell technology.

COMSOL Multiphysics is used to model and simulate the three-dimensional, single-phase, non-isothermal overall cell behaviour at different operating points. The sol-gel PBI/H3PO4 membrane behaviour is modeled using an Arrhenius approach, accounting for the activation energy and the membrane doping level.

Simulation results are compared to experimental investigations and good agreement is found.

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