PEFC has water management issues, such as flooding, where condensate blocks the pores of the gas-diffusion-layer, and plugging, where condensate blocks the gas channels. We confirmed that the flooding/plugging phenomena, in the anode gas channel, occur in low humidity when water is transported from the cathode to the anode through the membrane. Moreover, we have been developing a high performance separator. The high performance separator is composed of two channels of gas and drainage, and a water-absorption-layer (WAL) between GDL and the current collector. The WAL is a porous material made of stainless steel that absorbs the condensate from the GDL and the gas channel. The water absorbed by the WAL is supplied to the electrolyte membrane. The water supersaturated in the WAL is exhausted outside the cell through the drainage channel. We implemented a WAL in a fuel cell made of stainless steel and evaluated its effectiveness.
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