Grant: Engage Grants Program

Carbon monoxide and other contaminants are known to poison fuel cells and decrease their performance over time. Higher tolerance to contaminants can reduce the requirements on the purity of hydrogen and lower the purification costs. Quality control of fuel cells thus requires the knowledge of their tolerance to the presence of these contaminants in the hydrogen feedstock. This is performed by studying the effect of feeding hydrogen-contaminant mixtures to fuel cells. The objective of the project is to study the evolution of the concentration profile of carbon monoxide and ammonia arising from a pressurized release of hydrogen and nitrogen mixtures. We wish to establish the immediate danger to life and health level (IDHL) of contaminants as a function of mixture composition, release rate, ventilation and jet orientation. The results will be used to improve the safety of workers involved in fuel cell performance evaluation by suggesting operating and mitigation procedures, and defining exclusion zones. The project will be performed using computer fluid dynamics simulations and jet scaling law analysis.