IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v256y2026ipgs0960148125021743.html

Experimental investigation of hydrogen supply characteristics for proton exchange membrane fuel cells with multi-inlet multi-outlet configuration

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Hua
  • Liu, Yi
  • Lei, Jilin
  • Deng, Xiwen
  • Shen, Shiquan

Abstract

During the operation of air-cooled open-cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cells with a dead-end anode (DEA) mode, dry hydrogen continuously transports liquid water from upstream to downstream, leading to accumulation that causes insufficient hydration of the upstream membrane and flooding of the downstream membrane. These issues severely limit the performance and durability of the fuel cell. To address these challenges, we propose an innovative bidirectional overlapping hydrogen supply and bidirectional purge (BO-BP) mode that utilizes both ports of the anode for both hydrogen supply and purge ports, achievable by controlling merely four solenoid valves. The performance of the BO-BP mode was evaluated through experimental comparisons with several hydrogen supply modes, including the DEA mode. The data indicates that the BO-BP mode reduces the voltage decay rate by approximately 50 %, decreases water clogging by 5.23 %, and enhances power output by 1.97 % compared to traditional DEA operation. The overlapping hydrogen supply mitigates pressure fluctuations induced by flow reversal, thereby minimizing the mechanical stresses on the membrane electrode assembly. Additionally, when hydrogen is supplied in the direction opposite to that of gravity, the voltage drop slows down and the voltage even rises.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Hua & Liu, Yi & Lei, Jilin & Deng, Xiwen & Shen, Shiquan, 2026. "Experimental investigation of hydrogen supply characteristics for proton exchange membrane fuel cells with multi-inlet multi-outlet configuration," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(PG).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:256:y:2026:i:pg:s0960148125021743
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.124510
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148125021743
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2025.124510?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gong, Chengyuan & Xing, Lu & Liang, Cong & Tu, Zhengkai, 2022. "Modeling and dynamic characteristic simulation of air-cooled proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack for unmanned aerial vehicle," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1094-1104.
    2. Wee, Jung-Ho, 2007. "Applications of proton exchange membrane fuel cell systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 11(8), pages 1720-1738, October.
    3. Shahgaldi, Samaneh & Ozden, Adnan & Li, Xianguo & Hamdullahpur, Feridun, 2020. "A scaled-up proton exchange membrane fuel cell with enhanced performance and durability," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    4. Bai, Xingying & Luo, Lizhong & Huang, Bi & Jian, Qifei & Cheng, Zongyi, 2022. "Performance improvement of proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack by dual-path hydrogen supply," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    5. Ding, Hongbing & Zhang, Panpan & Dong, Yuanyuan & Yang, Yan, 2024. "Optimization of hydrogen recirculation ejector for proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) systems considering non-equilibrium condensation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(PC).
    6. Zhou, Shi Hao & DU, Wei & Chen, Hao & Ye, Fang & Deng, Cheng Wei & Guo, Hang, 2024. "Effects of droplet dynamical behavior in flow channel of proton exchange membrane fuel cell under vibration conditions on cell performance," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(PB).
    7. Lin, Peijian & Yang, Dehui & Zhao, Yang & Wang, Hongyu & Yang, Guogang & Li, Shian & Sun, Juncai, 2024. "Numerical investigation on designs and performances of multi-dimensional forced convection flow field design of proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    8. Esbo, M. Rahimi- & Ranjbar, A.A. & Rahgoshay, S.M., 2020. "Analysis of water management in PEM fuel cell stack at dead-end mode using direct visualization," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 212-221.
    9. Bai, Xingying & Luo, Lizhong & Huang, Bi & Huang, Zhe & Jian, Qifei, 2021. "Flow characteristics analysis for multi-path hydrogen supply within proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    10. Fan, Lixin & liu, Yang & Luo, Xiaobing & Tu, Zhengkai & Chan, Siew Hwa, 2023. "A novel gas supply configuration for hydrogen utilization improvement in a multi-stack air-cooling PEMFC system with dead-ended anode," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    11. Duc, Thinh-Vuong & Ba, Hieu-Nguyen & Kim, Huyn-Chul, 2025. "Enhanced uniformity of reactants and water content in single- and multi-serpentine channel of proton-exchange membrane fuel cell," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    12. Liu, Hao & Chen, Jian & Hissel, Daniel & Lu, Jianguo & Hou, Ming & Shao, Zhigang, 2020. "Prognostics methods and degradation indexes of proton exchange membrane fuel cells: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    13. Taner, Tolga, 2018. "Energy and exergy analyze of PEM fuel cell: A case study of modeling and simulations," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 284-294.
    14. Kurnia, Jundika C. & Sasmito, Agus P. & Shamim, Tariq, 2019. "Advances in proton exchange membrane fuel cell with dead-end anode operation: A review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 1-1.
    15. Yang, Yupeng & Jia, Haijuan & Liu, Zhi & Bai, Nan & Zhang, Xiaolai & Cao, Tong & Zhang, Jie & Zhao, Pengbing & He, Xiaocong, 2022. "Overall and local effects of operating parameters on water management and performance of open-cathode PEM fuel cells," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    16. Olabi, A.G. & Wilberforce, Tabbi & Abdelkareem, Mohammad Ali, 2021. "Fuel cell application in the automotive industry and future perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    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. Zhu, Ying & Li, Xinying & Ma, Yinjie & Long, Zhi & Liu, Hanwen & E, Jiaqiang, 2026. "A comprehensive review of microgrids with hydrogen energy systems: energy management strategies and system optimization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).

    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. Chang, Huawei & Cai, Fengyang & Yu, Xianxian & Duan, Chen & Chan, Siew Hwa & Tu, Zhengkai, 2023. "Experimental study on the thermal management of an open-cathode air-cooled proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack with ultra-thin metal bipolar plates," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PA).
    2. 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).
    3. Zhou, Feng & Yao, Kewen & Ma, Guoyuan, 2025. "Entrainment and flow performance study of a novel shark-gill bionic ejector for a PEMFC hydrogen supply system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    4. Bai, Xingying & Luo, Lizhong & Huang, Bi & Jian, Qifei & Cheng, Zongyi, 2022. "Performance improvement of proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack by dual-path hydrogen supply," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    5. Becker, F. & Cosse, C. & Gentner, C. & Schulz, D. & Liphardt, L., 2024. "Novel electrochemical and thermodynamic conditioning approaches and their evaluation for open cathode PEM-FC stacks," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 363(C).
    6. Zhao, Lei & Yuan, Hao & Xie, Jiaping & Jiang, Shangfeng & Wei, Xuezhe & Tang, Wei & Ming, Pingwen & Dai, Haifeng, 2023. "Inconsistency evaluation of vehicle-oriented fuel cell stacks based on electrochemical impedance under dynamic operating conditions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    7. Roman Niestrój & Tomasz Rogala & Wojciech Skarka, 2020. "An Energy Consumption Model for Designing an AGV Energy Storage System with a PEMFC Stack," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-31, July.
    8. Yu, Xianxian & Liu, Yang & Tu, Zhengkai & Chan, Siew Hwa, 2023. "Endplate effect in an open-cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack: Phenomenon and resolution," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(P1).
    9. Vu, Hoang Nghia & Truong Le Tri, Dat & Nguyen, Huu Linh & Kim, Younghyeon & Yu, Sangseok, 2023. "Multifunctional bypass valve for water management and surge protection in a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell supply-air system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    10. Yang, Yang & Yu, Xiaoran & Zhu, Wenchao & Xie, Changjun & Zhao, Bo & Zhang, Leiqi & Shi, Ying & Huang, Liang & Zhang, Ruiming, 2023. "Degradation prediction of proton exchange membrane fuel cells with model uncertainty quantification," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(P2).
    11. Li, Qingshan & Wang, Chenfang & Wang, Chunmei & Zhou, Taotao & Zhang, Xianwen & Zhang, Yangjun & Zhuge, Weilin & Sun, Li, 2023. "Comparison of organic coolants for boiling cooling of proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    12. Lu, Chihua & Li, Chenyu & Liu, Zhien & Li, Yongchao & Zhou, Hui & Zheng, Hao, 2025. "A review on applications of optical visualization technologies for water management in proton exchange membrane fuel cells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    13. Yao, Naiyuan & Lin, Weikang & Shi, Lei & Li, Ruitao & Qi, Jinxuan & Zhou, Julong & Yang, Yanbo & Ma, Tiancai, 2025. "Experimental study on the operating state of high-power vehicular fuel cell system hydrogen supply subsystem with an in-situ ultrasonic-based gas component monitoring equipment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 388(C).
    14. Lan, Shunbo & Lin, Rui & Dong, Mengcheng & Lu, Kai & Lou, Mingyu, 2023. "Image recognition of cracks and the effect in the microporous layer of proton exchange membrane fuel cells on performance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    15. Wu, Y. & Zhou, S. & Chen, J. & Li, B. & Li, J. & Kockelmann, W. & Han, Y. & Li, Q. & Chen, W. & Shearing, P.R. & Brett, D.J.L. & Miller, T.S. & Jervis, R., 2026. "Hydration state measurement in polymer electrolyte fuel cells from correlated neutron imaging and single-point impedance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 344(C).
    16. Li, Jianwei & Zou, Weitao & He, Hongwen & Zhang, Chenyu & Zhai, Shuang & Wan, Xinming & Mao, Zhanxing, 2025. "Fuel cell health state estimation based on a novel dynamic degradation model under non-fixed dynamic vehicle working conditions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 391(C).
    17. Zhao, Lei & Hong, Jichao & Xie, Jiaping & Jiang, Shangfeng & Wei, Xuezhe & Ming, Pingwen & Dai, Haifeng, 2023. "Investigation of local sensitivity for vehicle-oriented fuel cell stacks based on electrochemical impedance spectroscopy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(PA).
    18. Tu, Xikai & Lv, Jin & Wu, Jin & Luo, Xiaobing & Tu, Zhengkai, 2025. "Experimental investigation of a novel open cathode air-cooled fuel cell stack design featuring simultaneous inlet blowing and outlet suction," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    19. Chen, Leyuan & Qin, Yanzhou & Zhang, Caizhi & Hametner, Christoph & Sheng, Xinfa & Nan, Xingchen & Wang, Junhua & Stamenkovic, Živojin, 2025. "Exergy analysis and structural optimization improving efficiency in automotive proton exchange membrane fuel cell system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    20. Han, Yuan & Lai, Cong & Li, Jiarui & Zhang, Zhufeng & Zhang, Houcheng & Hou, Shujin & Wang, Fu & Zhao, Jiapei & Zhang, Chunfei & Miao, He & Yuan, Jinliang, 2022. "Elastocaloric cooler for waste heat recovery from proton exchange membrane fuel cells," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:renene:v:256:y:2026:i:pg:s0960148125021743. 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/renewable-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.