Transient response of a unit proton-exchange membrane fuel cell under various operating conditions

The transient response of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) is an important criterion in their application to automotive systems. Nevertheless, few papers have attempted to study experimentally this dynamic behaviour and its causes. Using a large-effective-area (330 cm²) unit PEMFC and a transparent unit PEMFC (25 cm²), systematic transient response and cathode flooding during load changes are investigated. The cell voltage is acquired according to the current density change under a variety of stoichiometry, temperature and humidity conditions, as well as different flooding intensities. In the case of the transparent fuel cell, the cathode gas channel images are obtained simultaneously with a CCD imaging system. The different levels of undershoot occur at the moment of load change under different cathode stoichiometry, both cathode and anode side humidity and flooding intensity conditions. It is shown that undershoot behaviour consists of two stages with different time delays: one is of the order of 1 s and the other is of the order of 10 s. It takes about 1 s for the product water to come up on to the flow channel surface so that oxygen supply is temporarily blocked, which causes voltage loss in that “undershoot”. The correlation of dynamic behaviour with stoichiometry and cathode flooding is analyzed from the results of these experiments.