Hydrogen Bromine Laminar Flow Electrochemical Cell for High Power and Efficiency Energy Storage Applications

We present a model for a novel fuel cell system incorporating hydrogen bromine electrochemistry into a laminar flow fuel cell architecture. The proposed system integrates the fast reaction kinetics of the bromine reduction reaction into a membrane-less device that relies on the fluid mechanics of laminar flow to maintain reactant separation. This design eliminates both the cross-over losses and the hydration requirements that have limited the effectiveness of many previous proton exchange membrane-based hydrogen bromine fuel cells. A two dimensional model of the system predicts that the hydrogen bromine system will produce 1 W/cm(2) at 90% efficiency, with a peak power output of 3.4 W/cm(2).