The JRC ZERO∇CELL design documentation
Description
The JRC ZERO∇CELL is a single cell testing hardware for PEM fuel cells membrane performance and durability examination, developed by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. The design documentation of the JRC ZERO∇CELL is available for the stakeholders under CERN-OHL-W v2 license. The JRC ZERO∇CELL testing hardware is designed to allow a reliable inter-comparison of test results between different test centres. It aims at operating conditions as far as possible uniform across the MEA active area. This is done by minimising the contribution of the specific hardware setup features on the experimental results. The condition to achieve this is a uniform distribution of all relevant physical quantities of reactant species, such as flow velocity, pressure, temperature and species concentration. Also, it is important that the compression of the MEA to be tested is well controlled during the whole performance/durability test. The criteria met by the JRC ZERO∇CELL are the following: — 10 cm2 active area. — straight parallel gas channels representative for automotive fuel cell flow fields. — stoichiometric and constant gas flow regimes of humidified reactants (air and H2). — co-flow as well as counter-flow of reactants. — At 4.0 A.cm-2 current density steady operation: ● laminar flow regime (Reynolds number, Re<1,000). ● reactant pressure drop across active area (anode and cathode) less than 10.0 kPa. ● temperature variation ±1.0 degC across the active area. ● The average change (integrated over the surface perpendicular to the gas flow) of gas composition less than 10% difference between inlet and outlet for both reactants. Uniform inlet conditions are assumed for all gas channels regarding: — pressure, — mass flow rate, — gas composition and — temperature. This work was partially funded by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (FCH2JU) receiving support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The FCH2JU may use this hardware as a tool to measure programme progress made on MEA performance and durability. All modifications should be communicated to: Tomasz.Bednarek@ec.europa.eu Thomas.Malkow@ec.europa.eu Darina.Blageova@ec.europa.eu This source describes Open Hardware and is licensed under the CERN-OHL-W v2. You may redistribute and modify this documentation and make products using it under the terms of the CERN-OHL-W v2 (https://cern.ch/cern-ohl). This documentation is distributed WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, INCLUDING OF MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Please see the CERN-OHL-W v2 for applicable conditions (https://ohwr.org/cern_ohl_w_v2.pdf). Copyright European Union (2017-2021).