Experimental study and mitigation of abnormal behavior of cell voltage in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack

Abstract

Summary The aim of this study is to investigate the abnormal behavior of cell voltage in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack and a mitigation strategy. The proposed strategy is simple and requires only a three‐way solenoid valve to replace the direct way solenoid valve of the original system. It is applied to a proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack with a dead‐ended anode to verify its validity. The behavior of the cell voltages in the stack is discussed in detail, especially the cell reversal process. The results show that the proposed strategy can significantly reduce the severity of hydrogen starvation. And the maximum power of the stack is increased by 10.67%. It is a sudden increase related to cell reversal mitigation. Uneven hydrogen distribution is the cause of low cell voltage and cell reversal. This strategy increases the cell voltage by increasing the hydrogen content in the anode flow channel downstream. It also significantly reduces the fluctuations in cell voltage and improves the uniformity of the cell voltage. This experimental study contributes to mitigate hydrogen starvation in cells of proton exchange membrane fuel cell stacks in application.

Design, Development and Testing of a Monitoring System for the Study of Proton Exchange Fuel Cells and Stacks

“…Huang, Zhao, and Jian [32] developed an acquisition system using a multichannel system (Smart DAC+GM, Yokogawa Electric Corp., Tokyo, Japan) capable of measuring 40 channels. With this system, they studied the behaviour of fuel cell voltage when starvation occurs, and proposed a technique to resolve this state, using hydrogen at high pressure from an anode outlet, which was effective in improving the performance of the dynamic operation of this system.…”

Methods for Remit Voltage Reversal of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

“…Chen et al (2016) optimized the opening size of the cathode outlet and found the carbon corrosion of support in both sides becomes less serious with the increase in opening size under the dead-ended anode mode. Lizhong Luo et al (Luo and Jian, 2019) found that the system strategy can help alleviate the fuel cell reversal phenomenon and boost the performance of the stack. By replacing the single-way solenoid valve used in the closed anode with a three-position three-way solenoid valve, the results show that the maximum power of the air-cooler stack increased by 10.96%, which significantly improves the distribution of hydrogen in the anode channel and reduces the voltage fluctuation.…”