Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module
COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.6 introduces the new Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module. This product is an add-on to COMSOL Multiphysics® and contains new Hydrogen Fuel Cell and Water Electrolyzer physics interfaces for modeling fuel cells and electrolyzers. Learn more about this new product below.
Modeling Fuel Cells and Electrolyzers
The new Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module provides engineers with state-of-the-art modeling and simulation tools for fuel cells and electrolyzers, along with general-purpose tools for realistic fluid flow properties and detailed electrochemical simulations. Using the new module, you can include charge transport, electrode reactions, thermodynamics, gas-phase diffusion, porous media flow, and two-phase flow when analyzing and optimizing technology for hydrogen vehicles and energy storage.
Note that, as of COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.6, the name of the product Batteries & Fuel Cells Module has changed to Battery Design Module, while retaining all functionality. Users that model fuel cells and electrolyzers are advised to use this new Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module.
The below sections highlight general functionality news that is relevant for modeling fuel cells and electrolyzers and that has not been available in any previous versions of the COMSOL Multiphysics® add-on products used for modeling electrochemistry.
Predefined Oxygen and Hydrogen Electrodes
Modeling gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) in the Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module is very straightforward. The transport equations in the gas phase and in the pore electrolyte are automatically defined in the user interface based on the boundary conditions added. The software contains separate domain features for defining the hydrogen and oxygen electrodes. The main electrode reactions are predefined, but you can change the kinetics and add bi- and parasitic reactions. These predefined electrodes are available for both the fuel cells and electrolyzers.
Automatic Generation of Iterative Solvers
The Iterative Geometric and Algebraic Multigrid solvers are now automatically generated by the study step nodes (however, a Direct solver will still always be used by default). Enabling one of the iterative solvers may decrease memory use and computational time for large simulations.
Linearization of Concentration Dependence in Electrode Kinetics
The new Linearization option improves kinetics for nonunit reaction orders by circumventing issues when evaluating powers of negative numbers. This feature is available in the Electrode Reaction and Porous Electrode Reaction nodes in the Tertiary Current Distribution interfaces when using the Nernst equation for the equilibrium potential in combination with either the Mass action law or Lumped multistep for the exchange current density. The new Linearization option is turned on by default when creating a new model and is used by all tutorial models featuring the Nernst equation and mass action law or lumped multistep kinetics options.
Highly Conductive Porous Electrode
The new Highly Conductive Porous Electrode domain node is available in most electrochemistry interfaces. This feature can be used for porous electrodes with a high conductivity in the electron-conducting electrode phase. It replaces the spatial variable for the electrode potential by a global variable, thereby reducing the number of degrees of freedom of the problem.
Revamped Porous Media Features for Transport of Diluted Species
The Transport of Diluted Species in Porous Media interface is revamped to use the new Porous Medium node. Two new domain features, the Porous Medium and the Unsaturated Porous Medium nodes, are available in the Transport of Diluted Species in Porous Media interface. You can use the new Porous Medium node for assigning material properties to the multiple phases in a porous medium. The new nodes have dedicated containers to define the properties for the liquid, gas, and porous matrix. You can see this functionality demonstrated in the Ceramic Water Filter with Activated Carbon Core tutorial model.
Included Tutorial Models
COMSOL Multiphysics® version 5.6 contains several tutorial models for the Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module.
Mass Transport and Electrochemical Reaction in a Fuel Cell Cathode
Application Library Title:
fuel_cell_cathode
Fuel Cell with Serpentine Flow Field
Application Library Title:
serpentine_flow_field
Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Electrolyzer
Application Library Title:
pem_electrolyzer
Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cell
Application Library Title:
soec
Mass Transport Analysis of a High-Temperature PEM Fuel Cell
Application Library Title:
ht_pem
Ohmic Losses and Temperature Distribution in a Passive PEM Fuel Cell
Application Library Title:
passive_pem