Natural fiber-derived gas diffusion layers for high performance, lower cost PEM fuel cells

The gas diffusion layer (GDL) is a critical component of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. GDL manufacture is dominated by the use of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers, resulting in high production costs. Those costs contribute to the high cost of fuel cell stacks. Thus, reducing GDL manufacturing costs without sacrificing performance, should help reduce the overall cost of the fuel cell stack. Using inexpensive, natural fiber-based papers and fabric as substrates, we examine the inherent performance these materials as GDLs, and the improvements enabled by the addition of a microporous layer, gas-phase hydrophobic treatment, and densification. The resulting GDLs achieve equivalent performance the commercial baseline GDL and demonstrate the potential of lower cost GDLs. •Low-cost GDLs were shown to have equivalent performance to commercial GDLs.•Demonstrated the potential of lower cost GDLs.•Inexpensive, natural fiber-based papers were used to fabricate GDLs.•Inexpensive, natural fiber-based fabrics were used as substrates to fabricate GDLs.•A gas-phase hydrophobic treatment was demonstrated as an alternative to Teflon.