質子交換膜燃料電池堆在運行時有控溫之問題，傳統水冷式散熱雖能有效散熱並維持電池性能，但卻需要額外的體積及重量。本研究開發內鑲式水冷流道燃料電池，將水冷流道鑲於燃料流道旁，整合水冷流道及燃料流道於雙極板中，省去傳統水冷板之加裝，藉以降低質子交換膜燃料電堆之體積、重量與生產成本；另外，為了解決因增大反應面積而造成之電池變形影響，本研究於水冷區安裝定位鎖緊區，此區之設置能有效降低電池變形量，並優化內部流場，進而提升電池性能。 研究結果顯示，於定位鎖緊區加裝螺絲，提供適當鎖緊力，能改善電池之變形情況，使其內部中心受壓較為均勻，讓氣體擴散層及流道接觸更加均勻。最終，單電池於操作電壓0.8 V下，有效提升性能48 %；另外，藉由化學計量比及背壓法測試之結果可得，此設計應用於電堆後，其流場與水密技術之開發並無太大問題，而在電壓均勻性與介面壓力均勻性亦具不錯之表現。而後若將此設計組裝成2 kW電堆，比起傳統水冷板設計，內鑲水冷燃料電池電堆可降低9 %之電堆體積以及節省12 %之加工成本。 ;In this research, we discuss about controlled temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack with water cooling system. The separate water cooling plates at the ends and in between the traditional PEMFC stack increases its cost, volume and weight. A flow channel plate embedded with water cooling channel feature to improve the temperature control in PEMFC stack is developed in this study. The water cooling channel is inlaid next to the fuel flow channel in the fuel cell and the inlet and outlet of fuel and water for the PEMFC stack is integrated to its bipolar plates. Further, the idea of designing a rectangular PEMFC stack with in-situ cooling design could arise uneven locking of the fuel cell. The uniform locking in the rectangular PEMFC stack is achieved by introducing an additional locking feature design in flow field plates of the in-situ water cooling area in the PEMFC stack. The PEMFC stack bolt fixing positions in this design promotes uniform locking and pressure distribution in fuel cell assembly. Thus promotes the uniform contact between the gas diffusion layer and flow chancel in the PEMFC stack. The experimental results shows that an increase in performance of 48 % (0.8 V) is observed in a single cell with additional lock feature compared to normal locking PEMFC. The effects of various fuel stoichiometric ratio and back pressure on the performance of the cell is also investigated. The uniform and good flow field distribution is also observed in PEMFC stack with this proposed design. The firm uniform contact between the PEMFC stack components in this design favored in exhibiting outstanding performance. Assembling a 2 kW PEMFC stack with this proposed design could also reduce the volume of the stack by 9 %. This novel flow field design study helps in decreasing the cost, volume and weight of the PEMFC stack with higher performance.
