Scribner Associates, Inc. and a team from North Carolina State University recently took direct aim at fuel cell research with a neutron beam from the University’s PULSTAR reactor. The team at NCSU investigated the feasibility of using neutron radiography to study water management in a polymer electrolyte fuel cell.
“We were very pleased to be able to work with NCSU on this,” described company president Jason Scribner. “Scribner has a long history of collaborating with academia. When researchers at NCSU approached us about the project we saw it as an opportunity to further our academic collaborations and help out with some cutting-edge research. It’s not every day that you get to work near a nuclear reactor. Having the University just up the road form us made it easier to do, too.” The team used Scribner’s 850e Fuel Cell Test System.
Over the course of two months, nuclear engineering and textile researchers at the University studied the influence of gas diffusion media type and operating conditions such as temperature, reactant humidification, and flow rate on water droplet formation in the cell. Water condensation and droplet formation was mapped with the neutron beam. Such neutron radiography studies may lead to improvements in water management methods including optimization of flow fields, gas diffusion media, and operating conditions.
