Evaluation of reciprocating electromagnetic air pumping for portable PEMFC

초록

In this paper, we present a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) integrated with an electromagnetic (EM) air pump. The EM air pump provides the PEMFC with air by reciprocating motions of the permanent magnet attached to a flexible membrane. We performed a parametric study to decide the optimal dimensions of the reciprocating EM air pump. The effects of various operating parameters on the EM air pump were investigated with the root-mean-square (RMS) flow rate and current. A core with a higher relative permeability shows better performance. The RMS current linearly increases with the applied voltage and shows no dependence on the frequency. The RMS flow rate also increases with the voltage. The RMS flow rate per power consumption is highest at the frequency around 20 Hz and decreases as the applied voltage increases. When the reciprocating EM air pump was used to supply air to the portable PEMFC, it was found that the power density of the PEMFC increases with the applied voltage and shows the highest performance at the frequency of 10 Hz. We compared the performance of the PEMFC between the flow meter and the EM air pump used as an air supplier. About 81% of the output power using the flow meter was obtained when the EM air pump is operated at the applied voltage of 5 V. The parasitic power ratio reaches at its minimum value about 0.1 with an EM applied voltage of 0.25V.

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