Louver and step flow field design to increase the water content of the membrane of an electrochemical hydrogen compressor

Compression is essential for transportation and storage because hydrogen has a low volumetric energy density. Therefore, this study conducted research on an electrochemical hydrogen compressor. Due to the absence of the water generation in electrochemical hydrogen compressors, it is necessary to supply adequately humidified hydrogen to prevent performance degradation caused by the drying of the proton exchange membrane. In this study, we designed louver and step serpentine flow fields to ensure a stable supply of the water vapor. We observed that the designed flow fields promote more efficient convection and diffusion within the GDL. As a result, the water content of the proton exchange membrane of the louver serpentine increased by 10.1 %, and performance enhanced by 4.93 % compared to the single serpentine. In the step serpentine, the water content increased by 10.03 %, and performance enhanced by 4.85 %. In conclusion, we designed a flow field that can increase the water content of the proton exchange membrane through simple geometric modifications without an additional power device.