Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology

The Korean Society of Marine Engineering (한국마린엔지니어링학회)
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Experimental Analyses of Cell Voltages for a Two-cell PEM Stack Under Various Operating Conditions

  • Received : 2011.09.30
  • Accepted : 2011.11.21
  • Published : 2011.11.30
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Abstract

Analyses of performance and behavior of the individual PEM fuel cells (PEMFC) under different operating conditions are of importance optimally to design and efficiently to operate the stack. The paper focuses on experimental analyses of a two-cell stack under different operating conditions, which performance and behavior are measured by the voltage of a cell as well as the stack. Experimental parameters include stoichiometric ratio, temperature of the air supplied under different working stack temperatures and loads. Results showed that the cell voltages are dominantly influenced by the temperature of the air supplied among others. In addition, an inherent difference between the first and the second cell voltage exists because of the tolerances of the cell components and the resulting different over-potentials at different equilibrium states. Furthermore, it is shown that the proton conductivity in the membranes conditioned by the humidity in the cathode channel highly affects the voltage differences of the two cells.

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References

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