Model prediction of effects of operating parameters on proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance

The performance of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell is greatly affected by the operating parameters. Appropriate operating parameters are necessary for PEM fuel cells to maintain stable performance. A three-dimensional multi-phase fuel cell model (FCM) is developed to predict the effects of operating parameters (e.g. operating pressure, fuel cell temperature, relative humidity of reactant gases, and air stoichiometric ratio) on the performance of PEM fuel cells. The model presented in this paper is a typical nine-layer FCM that consists of current collectors, flow channels, gas diffusion layers, catalysts layers at the anode and the cathode as well as the membrane. A commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software package Fluent is used to solve this predictive model through SIMPLE algorithm and the modeling results are illustrated via polarization curves including I–V and I–P curves. The results indicate that the cell performance can be enhanced by increasing operating pressure and operating temperature. The anode humidification has more significant influences on the cell performance than the cathode humidification, and the best performance occurs at moderate air relative humidity while the hydrogen is fully humidified. In addition, the cell performance proves to be improved with the increase of air stoichiometric ratio. Based on these conclusions, several suggestions for engineering practice are also provided.     

Experimental and modelling studies of low temperature PEMFC performance

The performance of a PEMFC (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell) is greatly influenced by the various operating variables like temperature, pressure, stoichiometry of reactants and humidity. The presented work deals with the experimental study of 30 cells low temperature PEM fuel cell stack employing Nafion®-212 membranes. Experimental results are discussed with polarization curves and compared with the steady state model results, developed in MATLAB. The model predicts increase PEMFC performance with increase in operating temperature, pressure and reactant humidity. The comparison shows good agreement between experimental and modeling results with deviations in the range of 7–15% only.     

Parametric analysis of simultaneous humidification and cooling for PEMFCs using direct water injection method

The effects of different operating parameters on humidification and cooling for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) using direct water injection method were experimentally investigated. Experiments with various injection water temperature, operating pressure and relative humidity of cathode side were carried out. In order to quantitatively analyze the performance of direct water injection method, polarization curves and dew point temperatures of cathode outlet gas were measured. Also, the possible mechanisms of the effect of each parameter were discussed. The experimental results showed that elevation of the injection water temperature and relative humidity of cathode side led to the improvement of stack performance. It resulted from humidification and cooling effect by the evaporation of injected water. Operating pressure also had an effect on the performance of direct water injection method. In pressurized operating condition, the evaporation of injected water was difficult to occur, and the effect of direct water injection method decreased. Based on the experimental results, it was demonstrated that the stack performance was remarkably improved because of humidification and cooling effect from direct water injection method.     

Mid-baffle interdigitated flow fields for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

A new design of an interdigitated flow field, called as a mid-baffle interdigitated flow field, was built and tested for its effect on the performance of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The results were compared to the conventional interdigitated flow field. Their performances at different oxidant gas flow rates and operating pressures were also examined and compared by using both O₂ and air as the cathode fuel reactants. The experimental results showed that when air was used as the cathode reactant, the cell with the mid-baffle interdigitated flow field outperformed the conventional one, giving a power output approximately 1.2-1.3 times higher depending on the air flow rates. The polarization curves of the mid-baffle interdigitated flow field showed larger limiting current densities at every air flow rate tested in this work. However, the performances of both flow fields were almost the same when the cathode reactant gas was O₂. The test also demonstrated that the flow field performance could be enhanced by increasing the oxidant gas flow rate and cell operating pressure.     

Voltage instability in a simulated fuel cell stack correlated to cathode water accumulation

Single fuel cells running independently are often used for fundamental studies of water transport. It is also necessary to assess the dynamic behavior of fuel cell stacks comprised of multiple cells arranged in series, thus providing many paths for flow of reactant hydrogen on the anode and air (or pure oxygen) on the cathode. In the current work, the flow behavior of a fuel cell stack is simulated by using a single-cell test fixture coupled with a bypass flow loop for the cathode flow. This bypass simulates the presence of additional cells in a stack and provides an alternate path for airflow, thus avoiding forced convective purging of cathode flow channels. Liquid water accumulation in the cathode is shown to occur in two modes; initially nearly all the product water is retained in the gas diffusion layer until a critical saturation fraction is reached and then water accumulation in the flow channels begins. Flow redistribution and fuel cell performance loss result from channel slug formation. The application of in-situ neutron radiography affords a transient correlation of performance loss to liquid water accumulation. The current results identify a mechanism whereby depleted cathode flow on a single cell leads to performance loss, which can ultimately cause an operating proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack to fail.     

Parameter optimization of PEMFC stack under steady working condition using orthogonal experimental design

Operating parameters have a huge impact on the output characteristics of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack. In this study, to optimize the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack, 4 sets of operating parameters, which include working temperature, cathode stoichiometric, relative humidity, and backpressure, were optimized by means of the orthogonal experimental design. The experiment was developed with the help of 4‐factor and 3‐level orthogonal table. Nine orthogonal experiments were performed, and the polarization curve, local current density distribution, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy of each experiment were obtained. It is observed that cathode stoichiometric and working temperature have much stronger effects on the output voltage and output consistency of stack than that of relative humidity and backpressure. Using comprehensive equilibrium method, the optimized combination of each parameter was achieved as follows: the working temperature was 75°C, cathode stoichiometric was 2.5, relative humidity was 50%, and backpressure was 1 bar. The on‐site test result showed that when the cathode stoichiometric was low, and some part of the stack would be in a starvation condition and when the temperature was low, it might cause mass transfer problems.     

Electrochemical characterization of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells and polarization curve analysis

This paper presents the diagnostic results of single polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell assemblies characterized by polarization curves. Single PEM fuel cell assemblies were investigated through accelerated voltage cycling test at different values of relative humidity. The fuel cells are tested at different humidity level. The cells are discussed in this paper with analysis results at different relative humidity at atmospheric pressure. This represents a nearly fully humidified, a moderately humidified, and a low humidified condition, respectively. This technique is useful for diagnosing the main sources of loss in MEA development work, especially for high temperature/low relative humidity operation where several sources of loss are present simultaneously. All the fuel cells showed better performance in terms of limiting current density value through polarization curves when oxygen was fed to the cathode side of each cell instead of air. The results indicate that the performance of the fuel cell could be depressed significantly by decreasing RH from 100 to 33%. Decrease in RH can result in slower electrode kinetics, including electrode reaction and mass diffusion rates, and higher membrane resistance.     

A mathematical model of a tubular solid oxide fuel cell with specified combustion zone

A numerical model has been developed to simulate the effect of combustion zone geometry on the steady state and transient performance of a tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The model consists of an electrochemical submodel and a thermal submodel. In the electrochemical model, a network circuit of a tubular SOFC was adopted to model the dynamics of Nernst potential, ohmic polarization, activation polarization, and concentration polarization. The thermal submodel simulated heat transfers by conduction, convention, and radiation between the cell and the air feed tube. The developed model was applied to simulate the performance of a tubular solid oxide fuel cell at various operating parameters, including distributions of circuits, temperature, and gas concentrations inside the fuel cell. The simulations predicted that increasing the length of the combustion zone would lead to an increase of the overall cell tube temperature and a shorter response time for transient performance. Enlarging the combustion zone, however, makes only a negligible contribution to electricity output properties, such as output voltage and power. These numerical results show that the developed model can reasonably simulate the performance properties of a tubular SOFC and is applicable to cell stack design.     

Performance investigation of a transportation PEM fuel cell system

In this study, a comprehensive performance analysis of a transportation system powered by a PEM fuel cell engine system is conducted thermodynamically both through energy and exergy approaches. This system includes system components such as a compressor, humidifiers, pressure regulator, cooling system and the fuel cell stack. The polarization curves are studied in the modeling and compared with the actual data taken from the literature works before proceeding to the performance modeling. The system performance is investigated through parametric studies on energy, exergy and work output values by changing operating temperature, operating pressure, membrane thickness, anode stoichiometry, cathode stoichiometry, humidity, reference temperature and reference pressure. The results show that the exergy efficiency increases with increase of temperature from 323 to 353 K by about 8%, pressure from 2.5 to 4 atm by about 5%, humidity from 97% to 80% by about 10%, and reference state temperature from 253 to 323 K by about 3%, respectively. In addition, the exergy efficiency increases with decrease of membrane thickness from 0.02 to 0.005 mm by about 9%, anode stoichiometry from 3 to 1.1 by about 1%, and cathode stoichiometry from 3 to 1.1 by about 35% respectively.     

High performance PEMFC stack with open-cathode at ambient pressure and temperature conditions

An open-air cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was developed. This paper presents a study of the effect of several critical operating conditions on the performance of an 8-cell stack. The studied operating conditions such as cell temperature, air flow rate and hydrogen pressure and flow rate were varied in order to identify situations that could arise when the PEMFC stack is used in low-power portable PEMFC applications. The stack uses an air fan in the edge of the cathode manifolds, combining high stoichiometric oxidant supply and stack cooling purposes. In comparison with natural convection air-breathing stacks, the air dual-function approach brings higher stack performances, at the expense of having a lower use of the total stack power output. Although improving the electrochemical reactions kinetics and decreasing the polarization effects, the increase of the stack temperature lead to membrane excessive dehydration (loss of sorbed water), increasing the ohmic resistance of the stack (lower performance).     

Parametric studies of a double-cell stack of PEMFC using Grafoil™ flow-field plates

A parametric study of a double-cell stack of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) using Grafoil™ flow-field plates is performed. A self-made membrane–electrode assembly (MEA) is used to integrate the PEMFC. Emphasis is placed on the effect of the transport parameters such as cell temperature, pressure and humidity of the reaction side, and flow-field geometry on the performance of the stack. Potential–current and power–current curves are presented. At a fixed dew point of the incoming reactants, say T_dp=30 °C, increasing the cell operating temperature past a threshold value of about 50 °C reduces the cell performance due to membrane dehydration. At a fixed cell operating temperature, a high flow back-pressure increases the cell performance through enhancing the reaction on both electrodes of the fuel cell. Moreover, the cell performance for the pressurised cathode side is better than that for the pressurised anode side due to the favourable back-diffusion of water in the membrane. Finally, empirical correlations are developed to describe the electrode process of the PEMFC stack under various operating conditions.     

Current distribution in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell with active water management

Air delivery is typically the greatest parasitic power loss in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) systems. We here present a detailed study of an active water management system for PEMFCs, which uses a hydrophilic, porous cathode flow field, and an electroosmotic (EO) pump for water removal. This active pumping of liquid water allows for stable operation with relatively low air flow rates and low air pressure and parallel cathode channel architectures. We characterize in-plane transport issues and power distributions using a three by three segmented PEMFC design. Our transient and steady state data provide insight into the dynamics and spatial distribution of flooding and flood-recovery processes. Segment-specific polarization curves reveal that the combination of a wick and an EO pump can effect a steady state, uniform current distribution for a parallel channel cathode flow field, even at low air stoichiometries (α_air = 1.5). The segmented cell measurements also reveal the mechanisms and dynamics associated with EO pump based recovery from catastrophic flooding. For most operating regimes, the EO pump requires less than 1% of the fuel cell power to recover from near-catastrophic flooding, prevent flooding, and extend the current density operation range.     

Innovative cathode flow-field design for passive air-cooled polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stacks

A novel cathode flow-field design suitable for a passive air-cooled polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack is proposed to enhance the water-retaining capability under excess dry air supply conditions. The innovative cathode flow-field is designed to supply more air to the cooling channels and further enables deceleration of the reactant air in the gas channels and acceleration of the coolant air in the cooling channels simultaneously along the air flow path. Therefore, the design facilitates the waste heat removal through the cooling channels while the water removal by the reactant air is minimized. The conceptual cathode flow-field design is validated using a three-dimensional PEM fuel cell model. The detailed simulation results clearly demonstrate that the new cathode flow-field design exhibits superior water-retaining capability compared with a conventional cathode flow-field design (parallel flow channel configuration) under typical air-cooled fuel cell operating conditions. This study provides a new strategy to design cathode flow-fields to alleviate notorious membrane dehydration and unstable performance issues in a passive air-cooled PEM fuel cell stack.     

An improved thermal control of open cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell is a well-known technology that has shown high efficiency and performance as a power system compared to conventional sources such as internal combustion engines. Especially, open cathode proton exchange membrane is growing more popular thanks to its simple structure, low cost and low parasitic losses. However, the open cathode fuel cell performance is highly related to the operating temperature variation and the airflow rate which is adjusted through the fan voltage. In this regard, the present study investigates the thermal management of an open cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The objectives are the stack performance improvement and the stack degradation prevention. Indeed, a safety and optimal operating zone governed by the load current, the stack temperature and the air stoichiometry, is designed. This optimal operating zone is defined based on the system thermal balance and the operating constraints. Hence, the proposed control strategy deals concurrently with the stack temperature regulation and the air stoichiometry adjustment to guarantee the goals achievement. The performance of the proposed control strategy is verified through experimental studies with different operating conditions and results prove its efficiency. To properly design an appropriate control strategy, a multiphysic fuel cell model is developed based on acausal approach by mean of Matlab/Simscape and experimentally validated.     

Effects of chlorides on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells

This paper investigates the effects of cathode gases containing chloride ions on the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) performance. Chloride solutions are vaporized using an ultrasonic oscillator and mixed with oxygen/air. The salt concentration of the mixed gas in the cathode is set by varying the concentration of the chloride solution. Five-hour tests show that an increase in the concentration of sodium chloride did not significantly affect the cell performance of the PEMFC. It is found that variations in the concentration of chloride do not show significant influence on the cell performance at low current density operating condition. However, for high current density operating conditions and high calcium chloride concentrations, the chloride ion appears to have a considerable effect on cell performance. Experimental results of 108-h tests indicate that the fuel cell operating with air containing calcium chloride has a performance decay rate of 3.446 mV h⁻¹ under the operating condition of current density at 1 A/cm². From the measurements of the I-V polarization curves, it appears that the presence of calcium chloride in the cathode fuel gas affects the cell performance more than sodium chloride does.     

A theoretical model of the membrane electrode assembly of liquid feed direct methanol fuel cell with consideration of water and methanol crossover

An algebraic model of the membrane electrode assembly of the direct methanol fuel cell is developed, which considers the simultaneous liquid water and methanol crossover effects, and the associated electrochemical reactions. The respective anodic and cathodic polarization curves can be predicted using this model. Methanol concentration profile and flux are correlated explicitly with the operating conditions and water transport rate. The cathode mixed potential effect induced by the methanol crossover is included and the subsequent cell voltage loss is identified. Water crossover is influenced by the capillary pressure equilibrium and hydrophobic property within the cathode gas diffusion layer. The model can be used to evaluate the cell performance at various working parameters such as membrane thickness, methanol feed concentration, and hydrophobicity of the cathode gas diffuser.     

Exploring the effects of symmetrical and asymmetrical relative humidity on the performance of H2/air PEM fuel cell at different temperatures

This article is dedicated to study the interlinked effects of symmetric relative humidity (RH), and asymmetric RH on the performance of H₂/air PEM fuel cell at different temperatures. The symmetric and asymmetric RH were achieved by setting the cathode relative humidity (RHC) and anode relative humidity (RHA) as equal and unequal values, respectively. The cell performance was evaluated by collecting polarization curves of the cell at different RH, RHC and RHA and at different cell temperatures (T_cell). The polarization curves along with the measured internal cell resistance (membrane resistance) were discussed in the light of the present fuel cell theory. The results showed that symmetric relative humidity has different impacts depending on the cell temperature. While at RH of 35% the cell can show considerable performance at T_cell = 70 °C, it is not so at T_cell = 90 °C. At T_cell = 70 °C, the cell potential increases with RH at lower and medium current densities but decreases with RH at higher currents. This was attributed to the different controlling processes at higher and lower current densities. This trend at 70 °C is completely destroyed at 90 °C. Operating our PEM fuel cell at dry H₂ gas conditions (RHA = 0%) is not detrimental as operating the cell at dry Air (O₂) conditions (RHC = 0%). At RHA = 0% and humidified air, water transport by back diffusion from the cathode to the anode at the employed experimental conditions can support reasonable rehydration of the membrane and catalysts. At RHA = 0, a possible minimum RHC for considerable cell operation is temperature dependent. At RHC = 0 conditions, the cell can operate only at RHA = 100% with a loss that depends on T_cell. It was found that the internal cell resistance depends on RH, RHA, RHC and T_cell and it is consistent with the observed cell performance.     

Experimental study on dual recirculation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

Durability and start-up ability in sub-zero environment are two technical bottlenecks of vehicular polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems. With exhaust gas recirculation on the anode and cathode side, the cell voltage at low current density can be reduced, and the membrane can be humidified without external humidifier. They may be helpful to prolong the working lifetime and to promote the start-up ability. This paper presents an experimental study on a PEM fuel cell system with anodic and cathodic recirculation. The system is built up based on a 10 kW fuel cell stack, which consists of 50 cells and has an active area of 261 cm². A cathodic recirculation pump and a hydrogen recirculation pump are utilized on the cathode and anode side, respectively. Key parameters, e.g., stack current, stack voltage, cell voltage, air flow, relative humidity on the cathode side, oxygen concentration at the inlet and outlet of the cathode side, are measured. Results show that: 1) with a cathodic recirculation the system gets good self-humidification effect, which is similar to that with an external humidifier; 2) with a cathodic recirculation and a reduction of fresh air flux, the cell voltage can be obviously reduced; 3) with an anodic recirculation the cell voltage can also be reduced due to a reduction in the hydrogen partial pressure, the relative humidity on the cathode side is a little smaller than the case with only cathode recirculation. It indicates that, for our stack the cathodic recirculation is effective to clamp cell voltage at low current density, and a self-humidification system is possible with cathodic recirculation. Further study will focus on the dynamic model and control of the dual recirculation fuel cell system.     

Experimental measurements of fuel and water crossover in an active DMFC

This study measured polarization curves as well as the high-frequency resistance of active direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) operates at around 80 °C with active controls of temperature, methanol concentration, airflow rate, and relative humidity. The relative humidity of the air did not have noticeable impacts on the fuel cell unless the operating temperature was near the evaporation temperature of water (100 °C). The hydrophobic water management layer (WML) between the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) and cathode air channel increases the mass transfer resistance and improves the water retention in MEA. Adding a WML increased the peak power density, decreased the ohmic resistance, and improved the fuel efficiency of the fuel cell, especially when it operated near 100 °C. This study also quantitatively measured methanol and water crossover as well as the fuel efficiency at different operating currents. The fuel efficiency increased significantly with the increase of the current density. Using a hydrophobic fuel management layer (FML) between the anode fuel channel and MEA reduced the fuel and water crossover rates and increased the ohmic resistance due to the decrease of the water content of the Nafion membrane. The FML improved fuel efficiency by reducing the methanol crossover. The combination of the FML and WML enabled the steady operation of DMFC using highly concentrated methanol solutions (up to 75 wt%).     

Study of gas pressure and flow rate influences on a 500 W PEM fuel cell,thanks to the experimental design methodology

The behaviour of a 500 W PEM fuel cell stack, fed by pure hydrogen and humidified compressed air, is currently investigated on the fuel cell test platform of Belfort.In this paper, the influences on fuel cell performance of gas pressure and flow rate parameters are studied. The fuel cell is operated in the pressure regulation mode: the gas flow rates are regulated thanks to mass flow controllers placed upstream of the stack and the gas pressures at stack inlets are controlled by regulation valves located downstream of the stack. The choice of the various tests to perform is made thanks to experimental design methodology, which is a suitable technique to characterise, analyse and to improve a complex system such as a fuel cell generator. In this study, the four physical factors considered are both hydrogen/air pressures and anode/cathode flow rates. Each factor has two levels, leading to a full factorial design requiring 16 experiments (16 current–voltage curves). The test bench developed at the laboratory allows setting the other factors (for instance: stack temperature, relative humidity and dew point temperature of the air at stack inlet) at fixed values. The test responses are the maximal output power and the efficiency computed for this power. Statistical sensitivity analyses (ANOVA analyses) are used to compute the effects and the contributions of the various factors to the fuel cell maximal power. The use of fractional designs shows also how it is possible to reduce the number of experiments. Some graphic representations are employed in order to display the results of the statistical analyses made for different current values.