Influence of the operational parameters on the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells with different flow fields

The need for more efficient energy conversion devices that can operate with a minimum of environmental pollution has drawn much attention to fuel cells in recent years. However, the performance of low-temperature fuel cells, like the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), needs substantial improvement. This work describes the effect of the operational and structural parameters on PEMFCs with different flow fields and gas diffusion electrodes built with conventional procedures. The results show that, under particular conditions, significant improvements in performance can be obtained by using interdigitated flow fields of adequate dimensions.