IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v115y2016ip1p550-560.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Experimental study of variable operating parameters effects on overall PEMFC performance and spatial performance distribution

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Qian
  • Lin, Rui
  • Técher, Ludovic
  • Cui, Xin

Abstract

Back pressure, relative humidity and air stoichiometry, these operational parameters have a crucial influence on the performance of PEMFC. Overall performance, stability and homogeneity of spatial performance distribution under variable operating parameters are in this paper researched. Polarization curves and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) are utilized to show the overall performance and resistance losses of PEMFC at variable operating parameters, while the segmented cell technique can provide real-time spatial current density distribution to reflect the uniformity and stability of the performance. Higher back pressure is an effective approach to improve the overall performance of the fuel cell whereas the uniformity keeps constant and the local stability decreases. The back pressure should be limited to some extent (0.3 bar in this paper). With the relative humidity increasing to a value (70% in this paper), overall performance and current distribution homogeneity of PEMFC enhance, but the stability sustains. Under higher air stoichiometry the fuel cell shows better overall and local performance, current distribution homogeneity and local stability. It's found that in all cases the performance near the outlet parts are worst due to poor water management and low gas concentration which could not be effectively enhanced by optimization of these operating conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Qian & Lin, Rui & Técher, Ludovic & Cui, Xin, 2016. "Experimental study of variable operating parameters effects on overall PEMFC performance and spatial performance distribution," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(P1), pages 550-560.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:115:y:2016:i:p1:p:550-560
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2016.08.086
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544216311999
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2016.08.086?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gomez, Alberto & Raj, Abhishek & Sasmito, Agus P. & Shamim, Tariq, 2014. "Effect of operating parameters on the transient performance of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stack with a dead-end anode," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 692-701.
    2. Chen, Ben & Ke, Wandi & Luo, Maji & Wang, Jun & Tu, Zhengkai & Pan, Mu & Zhang, Haining & Liu, Xiaowei & Liu, Wei, 2015. "Operation characteristics and carbon corrosion of PEMFC (Proton exchange membrane fuel cell) with dead-ended anode for high hydrogen utilization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 799-806.
    3. Kong, Im Mo & Jung, Aeri & Kim, Beom Jun & Baik, Kyung Don & Kim, Min Soo, 2015. "Experimental study on the start-up with dry gases from normal cell temperatures in self-humidified proton exchange membrane fuel cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P1), pages 57-66.
    4. Pérez, Luis C. & Brandão, Lúcia & Sousa, José M. & Mendes, Adélio, 2011. "Segmented polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells--A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 169-185, January.
    5. Chen, Ben & Wang, Jun & Yang, Tianqi & Cai, Yonghua & Zhang, Caizhi & Chan, Siew Hwa & Yu, Yi & Tu, Zhengkai, 2016. "Carbon corrosion and performance degradation mechanism in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with dead-ended anode and cathode," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 54-62.
    6. Xing, Lei & Cai, Qiong & Xu, Chenxi & Liu, Chunbo & Scott, Keith & Yan, Yongsheng, 2016. "Numerical study of the effect of relative humidity and stoichiometric flow ratio on PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cell performance with various channel lengths: An anode partial flooding modelli," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 631-645.
    7. Carton, J.G. & Olabi, A.G., 2010. "Design of experiment study of the parameters that affect performance of three flow plate configurations of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 2796-2806.
    8. Zhiani, Mohammad & Majidi, Somayeh & Silva, Valter Bruno & Gharibi, Hussein, 2016. "Comparison of the performance and EIS (electrochemical impedance spectroscopy) response of an activated PEMFC (proton exchange membrane fuel cell) under low and high thermal and pressure stresses," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 560-567.
    9. Abdollahzadeh, M. & Pascoa, J.C. & Ranjbar, A.A. & Esmaili, Q., 2014. "Analysis of PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) fuel cell cathode two-dimensional modeling," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 478-494.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Soo-Bin Han & Hwanyeong Oh & Won-Yong Lee & Jinyeon Won & Suyong Chae & Jongbok Baek, 2021. "On-Line EIS Measurement for High-Power Fuel Cell Systems Using Simulink Real-Time," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-14, September.
    2. Chen, Ben & Cai, Yonghua & Yu, Yi & Wang, Jun & Tu, Zhengkai & Chan, Siew Hwa, 2017. "Gas purging effect on the degradation characteristic of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with dead-ended mode operation II. Under different operation pressures," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 50-57.
    3. Lin, Rui & Zhong, Di & Lan, Shunbo & Guo, Rong & Ma, Yunyang & Cai, Xin, 2021. "Experimental validation for enhancement of PEMFC cold start performance: Based on the optimization of micro porous layer," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    4. Iranzo, Alfredo & Boillat, Pierre, 2018. "CFD simulation of the transient gas transport in a PEM fuel cell cathode during AC impedance testing considering liquid water effects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 449-457.
    5. Zeng, Tao & Zhang, Caizhi & Zhou, Anjian & Wu, Qi & Deng, Chenghao & Chan, Siew Hwa & Chen, Jinrui & Foley, Aoife M., 2021. "Enhancing reactant mass transfer inside fuel cells to improve dynamic performance via intelligent hydrogen pressure control," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    6. Zhong, Di & Lin, Rui & Jiang, Zhenghua & Zhu, Yike & Liu, Dengchen & Cai, Xin & Chen, Liang, 2020. "Low temperature durability and consistency analysis of proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack based on comprehensive characterizations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    7. Wang, Ya-Xiong & Chen, Quan & Zhang, Jin & He, Hongwen, 2021. "Real-time power optimization for an air-coolant proton exchange membrane fuel cell based on active temperature control," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    8. Najmi, Aezid-Ul-Hassan & Anyanwu, Ikechukwu S. & Xie, Xu & Liu, Zhi & Jiao, Kui, 2021. "Experimental investigation and optimization of proton exchange membrane fuel cell using different flow fields," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    9. Liu, Yongfeng & Wang, Na & Pei, Pucheng & Yao, Shengzhuo & Wang, Fang, 2018. "Asymptotic analysis of anode relative humidity effects on the fastest voltage decay single cell in a stack," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 490-500.
    10. Chen, Dongfang & Pei, Pucheng & Ren, Peng & Song, Xin & Wang, He & Zhang, Lu & Wang, Mingkai, 2022. "Analytical methods for the effect of anode nitrogen concentration on performance and voltage consistency of proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    11. Majlan, E.H. & Rohendi, D. & Daud, W.R.W. & Husaini, T. & Haque, M.A., 2018. "Electrode for proton exchange membrane fuel cells: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 117-134.
    12. Liu, Huize & Hu, Zunyan & Li, Jianqiu & Xu, Liangfei & Shao, Yangbin & Ouyang, Minggao, 2023. "Investigation on the optimal GDL thickness design for PEMFCs considering channel/rib geometry matching and operating conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    13. Zhao, Junjie & Tu, Zhengkai & Chan, Siew Hwa, 2022. "In-situ measurement of humidity distribution and its effect on the performance of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PD).
    14. Ángel Encalada-Dávila & Samir Echeverría & Jordy Santana-Villamar & Gabriel Cedeño & Mayken Espinoza-Andaluz, 2021. "Optimization Algorithms: Optimal Parameters Computation for Modeling the Polarization Curves of a PEFC Considering the Effect of the Relative Humidity," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-21, September.
    15. Mingzhang Pan & Chengjie Pan & Jinyang Liao & Chao Li & Rong Huang & Qiwei Wang, 2021. "Assessment of Sensitivity to Evaluate the Impact of Operating Parameters on Stability and Performance in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-23, July.
    16. Ogungbemi, Emmanuel & Ijaodola, Oluwatosin & Khatib, F.N. & Wilberforce, Tabbi & El Hassan, Zaki & Thompson, James & Ramadan, Mohamad & Olabi, A.G., 2019. "Fuel cell membranes – Pros and cons," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 155-172.
    17. Pan, Mingzhang & Li, Chao & Liao, Jinyang & Lei, Han & Pan, Chengjie & Meng, Xianpan & Huang, Haozhong, 2020. "Design and modeling of PEM fuel cell based on different flow fields," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    18. Zhang, Qian & Schulze, Mathias & Gazdzicki, Pawel & Friedrich, K. Andreas, 2021. "Comparison of different performance recovery procedures for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    19. Lin, Rui & Zhu, Yike & Ni, Meng & Jiang, Zhenghua & Lou, Diming & Han, Lihang & Zhong, Di, 2019. "Consistency analysis of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stack during cold start," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C), pages 420-432.
    20. Liu, Yongfeng & Fan, Lei & Pei, Pucheng & Yao, Shengzhuo & Wang, Fang, 2018. "Asymptotic analysis for the inlet relative humidity effects on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 573-584.
    21. Liu, Dengcheng & Lin, Rui & Feng, Bowen & Han, Lihang & Zhang, Yu & Ni, Meng & Wu, Sai, 2019. "Localised electrochemical impedance spectroscopy investigation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells using Print circuit board based interference-free system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    22. Liu, Jiaran & Tan, Jinzhu & Yang, Weizhan & Li, Yang & Wang, Chao, 2021. "Better electrochemical performance of PEMFC under a novel pneumatic clamping mechanism," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    23. Ho Jun Yoo & Gu Young Cho, 2023. "Influences of Flow Channel on Electrochemical Characteristics of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells Humidified with NaCl Contained H 2 O," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-9, January.
    24. El-Hay, Enas A. & El-Hameed, Mohamed A. & El-Fergany, Attia A., 2018. "Performance enhancement of autonomous system comprising proton exchange membrane fuel cells and switched reluctance motor," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 699-711.
    25. Yang, Zirong & Du, Qing & Jia, Zhiwei & Yang, Chunguang & Jiao, Kui, 2019. "Effects of operating conditions on water and heat management by a transient multi-dimensional PEMFC system model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 462-476.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abdollahzadeh, M. & Ribeirinha, P. & Boaventura, M. & Mendes, A., 2018. "Three-dimensional modeling of PEMFC with contaminated anode fuel," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 939-959.
    2. Chen, Ben & Cai, Yonghua & Yu, Yi & Wang, Jun & Tu, Zhengkai & Chan, Siew Hwa, 2017. "Gas purging effect on the degradation characteristic of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with dead-ended mode operation II. Under different operation pressures," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 50-57.
    3. Abdin, Z. & Webb, C.J. & Gray, E.MacA., 2016. "PEM fuel cell model and simulation in Matlab–Simulink based on physical parameters," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(P1), pages 1131-1144.
    4. Chen, Ben & Cai, Yonghua & Tu, Zhengkai & Chan, Siew Hwa & Wang, Jun & Yu, Yi, 2017. "Gas purging effect on the degradation characteristic of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with dead-ended mode operation I. With different electrolytes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 40-49.
    5. Hu, Junming & Li, Jianqiu & Xu, Liangfei & Huang, Fusen & Ouyang, Minggao, 2016. "Analytical calculation and evaluation of water transport through a proton exchange membrane fuel cell based on a one-dimensional model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 869-883.
    6. Chen, Ben & Wang, Jun & Yang, Tianqi & Cai, Yonghua & Zhang, Caizhi & Chan, Siew Hwa & Yu, Yi & Tu, Zhengkai, 2016. "Carbon corrosion and performance degradation mechanism in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with dead-ended anode and cathode," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 54-62.
    7. Oh, Taek Hyun, 2016. "A formic acid hydrogen generator using Pd/C3N4 catalyst for mobile proton exchange membrane fuel cell systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 679-685.
    8. Chowdhury, Mohammad Ziauddin & Timurkutluk, Bora, 2018. "Transport phenomena of convergent and divergent serpentine flow fields for PEMFC," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 104-117.
    9. Yin, Cong & Gao, Jianlong & Wen, Xuhui & Xie, Guangyou & Yang, Chunhua & Fang, Honglin & Tang, Hao, 2016. "In situ investigation of proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance with novel segmented cell design and a two-phase flow model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1071-1089.
    10. Parnian, Mohammad Javad & Rowshanzamir, Soosan & Gashoul, Fatemeh, 2017. "Comprehensive investigation of physicochemical and electrochemical properties of sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) membranes with different degrees of sulfonation for proton exchange membrane fuel ," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 614-628.
    11. Xu, Liangfei & Fang, Chuan & Li, Jianqiu & Ouyang, Minggao & Lehnert, Werner, 2018. "Nonlinear dynamic mechanism modeling of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell with dead-ended anode considering mass transport and actuator properties," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 106-121.
    12. Lopez Lopez, Guadalupe & Schacht Rodriguez, Ricardo & Alvarado, Victor M. & Gomez-Aguilar, J.F. & Mota, Juan E. & Sandoval, Cinda, 2017. "Hybrid PEMFC-supercapacitor system: Modeling and energy management in energetic macroscopic representation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1478-1494.
    13. Xu, Liangfei & Fang, Chuan & Hu, Junming & Cheng, Siliang & Li, Jianqiu & Ouyang, Minggao & Lehnert, Werner, 2017. "Parameter extraction of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell based on quasi-dynamic model and periphery signals," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 675-690.
    14. Ahmad Baroutaji & Arun Arjunan & John Robinson & Tabbi Wilberforce & Mohammad Ali Abdelkareem & Abdul Ghani Olabi, 2021. "PEMFC Poly-Generation Systems: Developments, Merits, and Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-31, October.
    15. Bizon, Nicu & Radut, Marin & Oproescu, Mihai, 2015. "Energy control strategies for the Fuel Cell Hybrid Power Source under unknown load profile," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 31-41.
    16. Tsai, Shang-Wen & Chen, Yong-Song, 2017. "A mathematical model to study the energy efficiency of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with a dead-ended anode," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 151-159.
    17. Chen, Ben & Zhou, Haoran & He, Shaowen & Meng, Kai & Liu, Yang & Cai, Yonghua, 2021. "Numerical simulation on purge strategy of proton exchange membrane fuel cell with dead-ended anode," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    18. Ramiar, A. & Mahmoudi, A.H. & Esmaili, Q. & Abdollahzadeh, M., 2016. "Influence of cathode flow pulsation on performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell with interdigitated gas distributors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 206-217.
    19. Atyabi, Seyed Ali & Afshari, Ebrahim & Wongwises, Somchai & Yan, Wen-Mon & Hadjadj, Abdellah & Shadloo, Mostafa Safdari, 2019. "Effects of assembly pressure on PEM fuel cell performance by taking into accounts electrical and thermal contact resistances," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 490-501.
    20. Wu, Horng-Wen, 2016. "A review of recent development: Transport and performance modeling of PEM fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 81-106.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:115:y:2016:i:p1:p:550-560. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.