A review on the numerical studies on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) flow channel designs for automotive applications

Climate change and the major threat it poses to the environment and human lives is the major challenge the world faces today. To overcome this challenge, it is recommended that future automobiles have zero carbon exhaust emissions. Even though battery electric vehicles reduce carbon emissions relative to combustion engines, a carbon footprint still remains in the overall ecosystem unless the battery is powered by renewable energy sources. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is an alternate source for automotive mobility which, similar to battery electric vehicles, has zero carbon emissions from its exhaust pipe. Moreover, the typical system level efficiency of a PEMFC is higher than an equivalent internal combustion powertrain. This review article covers the background history, working principles, challenges and applications of PEMFCs for automotive transportation and power generation in industries. Since the performance of a PEMFC is greatly influenced by the design of the anode and cathode flow channels, an in-depth review has been carried out on different types of flow channel designs. This review reveals the importance of flow channel design with respect to uniform gas (reactant) distribution, membrane proton conductivity, water flooding and thermal management. An exhaustive study has been carried out on different types of flow channels, such as parallel, serpentine, interdigitated and bio-inspired, with respect to their performance and applications.