Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMEC) is a promising water electrolysis technology, but its development is limited by cost and energy consumption. In order to effectively improve the heat transfer and gas-liquid two-phase transfer ability in the anode channel of proton exchange membrane electrolysis cell and improve the electrolysis performance, the wall structure of the electrolysis cell channel was studied. Based on the electrochemical principle and the theory of mass and heat transfer, a single channel model of three-dimensional non-isothermal proton exchange membrane electrolysis cell was established. The anode channel velocity, temperature, and gas-liquid two-phase distribution of the electrolysis cell were analyzed. The effects of bionic groove and conventional groove on the heat and mass transfer and electrochemical performance of the electrolysis cell were studied. The results showed that: (1) the addition of grooves in the anode channel of the electrolytic cell can optimize the fluid velocity, energy and mass transfer performance and electrochemical performance of the electrolytic cell in varying degrees. (2) Compared with the conventional geometric grooves, the bionic curved surface grooves had more obvious optimization effects on all aspects of the performance of the electrolytic cell. Compared with triangle grooves and V-shaped grooves, the heat transfer coefficients of the anode channel with the bionic curved surface groove increased by 10.8% and 28.2%, and relative optimization rate of the mass transfer rates of liquid water and oxygen reached 47.0% and 83.3%, respectively. (3) Groove spacing affected the degree of fluid disturbance in the channel, and the number of disturbances was positively correlated with the number of grooves. When the channel length was constant, the smaller the groove spacing was, the more frequent the disturbance was, the faster the fluid velocity in the channel of the electrolytic cell was, and the overall performance of the electrolytic cell was improved. The research results can provide certain reference for the further development of proton exchange membrane electrolyzer.
LIU Yuan-Yue
,
LIU Hong-Bo
,
HE Jing
,
HAN Jia-Xin
. Effect of groove structure on performance of proton exchange membrane electrolyzer[J]. The Chinese Journal of Process Engineering, 2023
, 23(5)
: 703
-712
.
DOI: 10.12034/j.issn.1009-606X.222208