Experimental investigation of operating characteristics of proton exchange membrane fuel cell with different anode strategies based on the segmented cell

ABSTRACT

In this study, we investigated the operating characteristics of large-scale proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells under different anode strategies, including flow-through mode, dead-ended mode, and recirculation mode, under typical automotive conditions using the segmented fuel cell. The experimental parameters such as output performance, current density distribution, anode pressure, and high-frequency resistance (HFR) of the PEM fuel cells are measured by several experimental approaches, and the three anode strategies are evaluated by analyzing their H₂ utilization, output performance stability, and system efficiency. The results show that the flow-through mode presents the most stable performance but the lowest H₂ utilization of 71.5%. Under the dead-ended mode, the performance degradation caused by the accumulation of water and N₂ can be recovered by purge, but that caused by membrane dehydration cannot be well recovered. Moreover, a self-humidification effect of the recirculation mode is observed in the experiments, which helped to improve the system efficiency of the PEM fuel cell under low relative humidity conditions to 35.23%, significantly higher than that of 26.51% under the flow-through mode and 29.92% under the dead-ended mode. Therefore, the recirculation mode is more conducive to the commercialization of PEM fuel cells than the other two anode strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• proton exchange membrane fuel cell
• anode strategy
• recirculation mode
• H₂ utilization
• segmented fuel cell

Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFE0103100), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52176196), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2021TQ0235).

Author contributions

Conceptualization, J.L., B.W. and K.J.; Methodology, J.L., B.W., Y.Y. and K.J.; Investigation, J.L.; Resources, J.K.; Writing – Original Draft, J.L.; Writing – Review & Editing, J.L., B.W. and K.J.; Supervision, K.J.; Funding Acquisition, B.W., Y.Y. and K.J.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China [No. 2022YFE0103100]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 52176196]; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [No. 2021TQ0235]