Determination of a spatial distribution of an electrical production parameter of an electrochemical cell

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10686202-B2
Application number	US-201615271669-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2016
Priority date	Sep 21, 2015
Publication date	Jun 16, 2020
Grant date	Jun 16, 2020

Abstract

A method is provided for determining a spatial distribution (R x,y f ) of a parameter of interest (R) representative of the electrical power production of an electrochemical cell, including steps of determining the spatial distribution (R x,y f ) the parameter of interest (R) depending on a spatial distribution (Q x,y e ) of a second thermal quantity (Q e ) estimated beforehand from a spatial distribution (T x,y c ) of a set-point temperature (T c ) and from a spatial distribution (D x,y r ) of a first thermal quantity (D r ).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for determining a spatial distribution (R x,y f ) of a parameter of interest (R) representative of electrical power production of an electrochemical cell and representative of an electrical resistance of the electrochemical cell,
said electrochemical cell including two electrodes separated from one another by an electrolyte and placed between two bipolar plates, said electrochemical cell being configured to supply reactive species to the two electrodes and to remove heat produced by the electrochemical cell in operation,
wherein the two bipolar plates of said electrochemical cell are formed from two sheets that are bonded to each other, each sheet of the two sheets including embossments having an external face defining a circuit configured to distribute the reactive species, the embossments of the sheets together having internal faces, which are opposite the external faces, defining a cooling circuit including cooling channels in fluid communication with one another between an inlet and an outlet of the cooling circuit, configured to allow fluid passage from one cooling channel to another cooling channel of said cooling channels after entering at the inlet and before exiting at the outlet of the cooling circuit,
the method comprising:
i) providing the electrochemical cell, within which the parameter of interest (R) has an initial spatial distribution (R x,y i ), and within which a spatial distribution of a temperature within the electrochemical cell in operation has at least one local temperature value greater thane or equal to a preset maximum local temperature value;
ii) defining a spatial distribution (T x,y c ) of a set-point temperature (T c ) within the electrochemical cell in operation, said spatial distribution (T x,y c ) being such that local temperature values are lower than preset maximum local temperature values;
iii) measuring a spatial distribution (D x,y r ) of a first thermal quantity (D r ) representative of local removal of heat within said electrochemical cell in operation, the first the quantity (D r ) being a measured effective local flow rate of heat-transfer fluid flowing in a cooling circuit of a bipolar plate of the two bipolar plates of the electrochemical cell in operation, and the measured spatial distribution of the heat-transfer fluid flow rate having spatial inhomogeneities;
iv) estimating a spatial distribution (Q x,y e ) of a second thermal quantity (Q e ) representative of local production of heat within said electrochemical cell in operation, the second thermal quantity (Q e ) being the local heat flux produced by said electrochemical cell in operation, the estimating depending on said defined spatial distribution (T x,y c ) of the set-point temperature (T c ) within the electrochemical cell in operation rind on said measured spatial distribution (D x,y r ) of the first thermal quantity (D r ), so that:
the first thermal quantity (D r ) of the electrochemical cell has said measured spatial distribution (D x,y r ),
the second thermal quantity (Q e ) of the electrochemical cell has said estimated spatial distribution (Q x,y e ), and
an effective spatial distribution of the temperature within said electrochemical cell in operation is then substantially equal to said defined spatial distribution (T x,y c ) of the set-point temperature (T c ) within the electrochemical cell in operation; and

v) determining the spatial distribution (R x,y f ) of the parameter of interest (R) depending on the estimated spatial distribution (Q x,y e ) of the second thermal quantity (Q e ).

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the parameter of interest (R) is chosen from a parameter representative of a contact resistance between at least one of the electrodes and an adjacent bipolar plate, a load of a catalyst present at least in one of the electrodes, and a parameter representative of a permeability of at least one of the electrodes.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining the spatial distribution (R x,y f ) of the parameter of interest (R) further depends on a preset value of a parameter representative of an overall electrical power of the electrochemical cell.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein estimating a spatial distribution of the second thermal quantity includes:
generating a mesh of a cooling circuit of at least one bipolar plate of the two bipolar plates, the cooling circuit being configured to per flow of a heat-transfer fluid, and
simulating, numerically by a computer, the second thermal quantity (Q e ) on said mesh, by solving a discrete numerical model expressing the second thermal quantity (Q e ) as a function of the at least one local temperature value and of the first thermal quantity (D r ).

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the determining the spatial distribution (R x,y f ) of the parameter of interest includes:
a) estimating the spatial distribution (I e ) of the density of an electrical signal produced by the electrochemical cell in operation, from the estimated spatial distribution (Q x,y e ) of the local heat flux; and
b) determining the spatial distribution (R x,y f ) of the parameter of interest (R), from a local density of the electrical signal.

6. A method for producing an electrochemical cell including two electrodes separated from each other by an electrolyte and placed between two bipolar plates, said electrochemical cell being configured to supply reactive species to the two electrodes and to remove heat produced by the electrochemical cell in operation, the method comprising:
considering a reference electrochemical cell having a parameter of interest (R) representative of electrical power production of the electrochemical cell and distributed with an initial spatial distribution (R x,y i );
determining a spatial distribution (R x,y f ) of parameter of interest (R), using the method according to claim 1 ; and
producing the electrochemical cell, on the basis of the reference electrochemical cell in which the parameter of interest (R) has the determined spatial distribution (R x,y f ).

7. A method for producing an electrochemical-cell bipolar plate, comprising:
i) considering a reference electrochemical cell including two electrodes separated from each other by an electrolyte and placed between two bipolar plates configured to supply reactive species to the electrodes and to remove heat produced by the electrochemical cell in operation, the cell having an electrical resistance that is spatially distributed with an initial spatial distribution (R xy i ):
ii) determining a spatial distribution (R xy f ) of the electrical resistance, using the method according to claim 1 ; and
iii) producing said electrochemical-cell bipolar plate such that the electrical resistance has the determined spatial distribution (R xy f ).

8. The method for producing an electrochemical-cell bipolar plate according to claim 7 , said electrochemical-cell bipolar plate being forme from two embossed sheets that are joined to each other by a plurality of spot welds distributed with an initial spatial distribution of spot welds, the producing the electrochemical-cell bipolar plate including modifying an initial spatial distribution of a parameter representative of a contact resistance between the two embossed sheets depending on the determined spatial distribution (R x,y f ).

9. The method for producing an electrochemical-cell bipolar plate according to claim 8 , wherein the modifying the initial spatial distribution of the parameter representative of the contact resistance includes modifying the initial spatial distribution of the spot welds joining the two embossed sheets to each o

Assignees

• Commissariat Energie Atomique

Inventors

• Nandjou Dongmeza Fredy-Intelligent
• Poirot-Crouvezier Jean-Philippe
• Micoud Fabrice
• Gerard Mathias
• Robin Christophe
• Jabbour Lara
• Vincent Remi

Classifications

• C25B15/021

  of heating or cooling · CPC title

• C25B9/75

  having bipolar electrodes · CPC title

• H01M8/241 Primary

  with solid or matrix-supported electrolytes · CPC title

• C25B11/036

  Bipolar electrodes · CPC title

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title