What Can the Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module Do?
The Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Module extends the COMSOL Multiphysics environment with customized physics interfaces for modeling of fuel cells and electrolyzers. These physics interfaces provide tools for building detailed models of the configuration of the various parts constituting electrochemical energy converters. The interfaces include descriptions of the electrochemical reactions and the transport properties that influence the performance in terms of fuel or electricity consumption, energy efficiency and cooling requirements. With this module, you have the perfect tools to investigate the influence of using different materials, geometric configurations, and operating conditions.
The core functionality of the module are the electrochemistry interfaces. Generic electrochemistry interfaces for various types (primary, secondary, and tertiary) current distributions are available, which may be used for modeling both solid nonporous as well as for porous electrodes. In addition to these generic electrochemistry interfaces, the module also contains dedicated Hydrogen Fuel Cell and Water Electrolyzer interfaces.
The tailored physics interfaces mentioned above are also complemented with extended functionality in other physics interfaces for chemical species transport, heat transfer, and fluid flow. In particular, the fluid flow interfaces are extended to also include functionality to model two-phase flow.
A selection of suitable materials are also available in the Fuel Cell and Electrolyzer Material Library. For more detailed information about materials, see Materials in the COMSOL Multiphysics Reference Manual.
Finally, the Fuel Cell & Electrolyzer Application Library includes a number of tutorials (model examples) for various types of fuel cell and electrolyzers.
See Where Do I Access the Documentation and Application Libraries? to locate and use these examples and tutorials as a starting point to your own investigations.