Herbert Damsohn

Micro heat exchangers for fuel cell systems

Behr has developed a high-performance heat exchanger with microchannels for fuel cell systems that can also be used as auxiliary power units (APUs) in vehicles. The superiority of micro channels over standard design dimensions is illustrated by the much higher heat transfer coefficients and hence also the higher power densities they achieve. At the same time, however, the pressure drop for micro heat exchangers is relatively small, which means they are suitable for use in fuel cell systems as heat exchangers for gases and fluids with or without phase transition, and also as catalytic reactors.