Analysis of Fuel Cell Stack Performance Attenuation and Individual Cell Voltage Uniformity Based on the Durability Cycle Condition

Abstract

Based on the dynamic cycle condition test of a 4.5 kW fuel cell stack, the performance attenuation and individual cell voltage uniformity of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack was evaluated synthetically. The performance decay period of the fuel cell stack was 180–600 h, the decrease of voltage and power was evaluated by rate and amplitude. The results show that the performance of the fuel cell stack decreased with the increase of test time and current density. When the test was carried out to 600 h, under rated operating conditions, the voltage attenuation rate was 130 μV/h, and the voltage reduced by 71 mV, with a decrease of 10.41%. The power attenuation rate was 0.8 W/h, with a decrease of 10.42%. The statistical parameter variation coefficient was used to characterize the voltage consistency of individual cells. It was found that the voltage uniformity is worse at the high current density point and with a long-running process. The variation coefficient was 3.1% in the worst performance.

Key findings

• ▸The performance of the fuel cell stack decreased with increasing test time and current density.
• ▸Voltage attenuation rate was 130 μV/h, with a 10.41% decrease after 600 hours.
• ▸Power attenuation rate was 0.8 W/h, with a 10.42% decrease after 600 hours.

Keywords

Identifiers

DOI

10.3390/polym13081199

Journal

Polymers

Year

2021