A Fuel Cell Power Supply System Equipped with Artificial Gill Membranes for Underwater Applications

Abstract This work proposes a fuel cell power supply system for underwater applications (e.g., autonomous underwater vehicles), where artificial gills, based on a polymer membrane, harvest the required oxygen from the ambient water. In this system, a circulating air‐flow continuously supplies a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with oxygen, which is replenished using a polymer membrane. The membrane serves as the interface between the circulating air‐flow and the ambient water, preventing water flux while allowing an oxygen flux across the membrane, driven by a partial oxygen pressure gradient. To demonstrate the feasibility of this concept, a prototype system was built based on guidelines derived from a mathematical model that was developed to describe the oxygen transfer process. A computational fluid dynamics model is developed and validated against the measurements from the prototype, resulting in a digital twin. The analysis indicates that the proposed power supply system has the potential to be superior to any battery‐based solution currently available.