Air and hydrogen supply systems and equipment for PEM fuel cells: a review

Summary

Air and hydrogen supply systems are key subsystems of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems. This paper reviews the research on the gas (air and hydrogen) supply systems and equipment for PEM fuel cells. The scroll, screw, Roots, and centrifugal compressors are the major structures of compressors applied in the PEM fuel cells. Most studies and applications focus on air supply systems with centrifugal compressors. Four configurations of hydrogen supply systems are introduced, and characteristics of ejectors and hydrogen compressors are presented. The main technical developing directions for gas supply systems have been represented. The essential techniques involve the coupling of air compressors with PEM fuel cell systems, compressor and expander matching in the air supply system, integration of cooling and humidification in compressors, and energy utilization of high-pressure hydrogen gas.

KEYWORDS:

• Air supply system
• PEM fuel cell
• compressor
• ejector
• hydrogen

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Taishan Scholar Project of Shandong Province (No. tsqn201812073) and the project of industrialization innovation team of industrial technology research institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Foshan (ZK2018005).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Taishan Scholar Project of Shandong Province (No. tsqn201812073) the industrialization innovation team of industrial technology research institute of Chinese academy of Sciences in Foshan.