Optimizing Theoretical Fuel Cell

by Luis Riviere

Submitted : Spring 2019

Fuel cells are devices that transform chemical energy into electrical energy and produce water as a byproduct making it more eco-friendly than other fuel sources. The aim of this project is to find the area of the electrodes of the fuel cell at which it is the most efficient using up the most energy available without wasting any. This was done by using the second derivative method to find the extrema of the performance curve function. And subsequently using this point to calculate the ideal are through relation in power, area, voltage, current, current intensity, and power intensity. Then it was proven by graphing  the voltage and current intensity performance curve giving us the same value as the extrema at the intersection. The project concludes that a a theoretical fuel cell with a resistance of 5 Ω can generate 0.08612 W of power whgile working at peak efficiency with an are of 18.1692cm².   

[ Back ]