Abstract
The proton exchange membrane fuel cell could be made more commercially viable by substituting the expensive platinic catalyst without loss of performance. This should be done simultaneously through optimization and use of a non-precious metal catalyst. In this study, multi-objective optimization of the catalyst layer was done on nonprecious metal catalysts. Nitrogen-doped graphene (NG)-based cobalt was synthesized as a non-precious metal catalyst. Differential equations were solved at the modeling stage by the shooting method, and objective functions were solved at the optimization stage using sequential quadratic programming. NG-based cobalt was evaluated in a cell and then compared with the platinum catalyst. Results present the synthesized non-precious catalyst as an appropriate replacement for existing precious metal catalyst. Also, the polarization curve demonstrates that the current modeling is in good agreement with NG-based cobalt catalyst. Finally, the Pareto curve at the voltage of 0.6 V (and 300 A/m2 current density in the base case) indicated that the best tradeoff between cost and performance of the catalyst layer was achieved when the current density was increased in the range of 5% to 15%.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
C. Spiegel, PEM fuel cell modeling and simulation using Matlab, Elsevier Inc. (2008).
D.P. Wilkinson, J. Zhang, R. Hui, J. Fergus and X. Li, Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells: Materials Properties and Performance, Taylor and Francis Group LLC (2010).
R. Othman, A. L. Dicks and Z. Zhu, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 37, 357 (2012).
H. Ghanbarlou, S. Rowshanzamir, B. Kazeminasab and M. J. Parnian, J. Power Sources, 273, 981 (2015).
K. Broka and P. Ekdunge, J. Appl. Electrochem., 27, 281 (1997).
P. C. Sui, L. D. Chen, J. P. Seaba and Y. Wariishi, SAE Congress, 01, 61 (1999).
Q. Wang, D. Song, T. Navessin, S. Holdcroft and Z. Liu, Electrochim. Acta, 50, 725 (2004).
W. Sun, B. A. Peppley and K. Karan, Electrochim. Acta, 50, 3359 (2005).
M. Srinivasarao, D. Bhattacharyya, R. Rengaswamy and S. Narasimhan, Chem. Eng. Res. Des., 89, 10 (2011).
A.A. Kulikovsky, Electrochim. Acta, 79, 31 (2012).
S.O. Mert and Z. Özçelik, Int. J. Energy Res., 37, 1256 (2013).
M. S. Feali and M. Fathipour, Russian J. Electrochem., 50, 561 (2014).
S.M.C. Ang, D. J.L. Brett and S. Fraga, J. Power Sources, 195, 2754 (2010).
J.C. Park, S. H. Park, M.W. Chung, C. H. Choi, B. K. Kho and S. I. Woo, J. Power Sources, 286, 166 (2015).
D. Malko, T. Lopes, E.A. Ticianelli and A. Kucernak, J. Power Sources, 323, 189 (2016).
B. Kazeminasab, S. Rowshanzamir and H. Ghadamian, Bulgarian Chem. Commun., 47, 38 (2015).
M. Moein-Jahromi and M. J. Kermani, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 37, 17954 (2012).
S. Inamuddi, T.A. Cheema, S.M.J. Zaidi and S.U. Rahman, Renewable Energy, 36, 529 (2011).
S. Obut and E. Alper, J. Power Sources, 196, 1920 (2011).
N. Khajeh-Hosseini-Dalasm, M. Fesanghary, K. Fushinobu and K. Okazaki, Electrochim. Acta, 60, 55 (2012).
R. O’Hayre, S. W. Cha, W. Colella and F. B. Prinz, Fuel Cell Fundamentals, New York, Wiley (2006).
J. Zhang, PEM fuel cell electrocatalysts and catalyst layers, Springer (2008).
A. Alaswad, A.G. Olabi, A. Palumbo and M. Dassisti, PEM Fuel Cell Cost Analysis during the Period (1998-2014), Elsevier (2016).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kazeminasab, B., Rowshanzamir, S. & Ghadamian, H. Nitrogen doped graphene/cobalt-based catalyst layers of a PEM fuel cell: Performance evaluation and multi-objective optimization. Korean J. Chem. Eng. 34, 2978–2983 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-017-0202-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-017-0202-2