Proceedings of the Thirty-second (2022) International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference
Shanghai, China, June 5–10, 2022
Copyright © 2022 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-81-4; ISSN 1098-6189

www.isope.org

Experimental and Numerical Research on the Heat Exchange Performances of Fuel Cell Cooling System
for Marine Application
Jiwei Xu, Qiongwen Pan, Binbin Li, Cong Zhao, Wei Zhang

China Ship Scientific Research Center, Taihu Laboratory of Deepsea Technological Science
Wuxi, Jiangsu, PR China

controlling effect requires complicated control algorithm, such as PIDalgorithm and MPC algorithm (Qi, YX, 2019 ). An alternative choice isto establish the cooling system with passive controller with lessrequirements of the controlling algorithm. Furthermore, water is an
ideal medium for transferring heat for marine application. Thus, a watercooling system of fuel cell system for marine application with passivecontroller was established, theoretical and experimental research on thecooling performances were discussed in the present research.

ABSTRACTHeat exchange performances of cooling system of fuel cell for marine
application have been investigated by experimental test and numericalsimulation in the present research. Firstly, a mathematical model of fuelcell cooling system with paraffin thermostat based on simplified
analytical method. Secondly, comparing the analytical calculation
results with the experimental results. Lastly, obtaining the change lawof heat transfer performance by changing the initial setting parameters.
The calculation results show that the temperature change speed ofcooling water can be inflected by changing the thermal capacity ofcooling system or the heat exchange capacity of cooling system. And
it’s an effective way of reducing the temperature change of coolingwater to choose the radiator matching the fuel cell heating power andthe cooling system.

SYSTEM COMPOSITIONAs shown in Fig. 1, the water cooling system is consist of two circuits.
In the internal circuit, heat generated in the fuel cell module is carriedout by the pure water which is also generated in the fuel cell module;
then after being distributed by the paraffin thermostat, the hot waterflows through the hot side of the heat exchanger to be cooled, goes into
the tank finally. The pump pumps the cool water from the water tankinto the fuel cell module to cool the reactor. In the external circuit, coolwater flows through the cool side of the heat exchanger, where the heattransfer was acted, and the hot water could be cooled by the coolingtower.

KEY WORDS: PEM fuel cell; cooling system; paraffin thermostat;radiator; experiment method.

INTRODUCTION
Fuel cell is a powerful energy converter which can convert chemicalenergy into electrical energy with heat and water as by-products.
Among the variety forms of fuel cells, PEMFC ( Proton Exchange
Memberance Fuel Cell ) is widely used in automobiles, marineapplications, back-up power stations and other fields due to its
cleanliness and efficiency (Zhang, GS, 2012; Zhao, YZ, 2015 ). As soon
as the chemical energy is converting into electricity, the corresponding
heat need to be taken out of the fuel cell stack in time. Thereby, thermal
management is one of the most important key characteristics of fuelcell system due to fulfill the requirements of high energy efficiency,
safety, et.al ( Ramezanizadeh, M, 2019; Qin, YZ, 2021 ). On the one
hand, higher operating temperature will lead to a higher water vapor
pressure, which would cause a higher water loss in the proton exchange
membrane, even shrinkage damage of the membranes. On the otherhand, a lower reaction temperature would lead to lower electrochemical
reaction speed of fuel cells, resulting in decreased performance of fuelcells. Therefore, it is of importance to control the working temperatureof fuel cell in a proper temperature range through the control andmanagement of cooling system.
Generally, an active controller of cooling system with accurate

Figure 1 System composition of the water cooling system
The paraffin thermostat which could adjust water temperature byadjusting the water flow, is one of the key characteristics in the cooling

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