High performance PEMFC stack with open-cathode at ambient pressure and temperature conditions

An open-air cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was developed. This paper presents a study of the effect of several critical operating conditions on the performance of an 8-cell stack. The studied operating conditions such as cell temperature, air flow rate and hydrogen pressure and flow rate were varied in order to identify situations that could arise when the PEMFC stack is used in low-power portable PEMFC applications. The stack uses an air fan in the edge of the cathode manifolds, combining high stoichiometric oxidant supply and stack cooling purposes. In comparison with natural convection air-breathing stacks, the air dual-function approach brings higher stack performances, at the expense of having a lower use of the total stack power output. Although improving the electrochemical reactions kinetics and decreasing the polarization effects, the increase of the stack temperature lead to membrane excessive dehydration (loss of sorbed water), increasing the ohmic resistance of the stack (lower performance).The results show that the stack outputs a maximum power density of 310mW/cm2 at 790mA/cm2 when operating at ambient temperature, atmospheric air pressure, self-humidifying, air fan voltage at 5.0 V and 250 mbar hydrogen relative pressure. For the studied range of hydrogen relative pressure (150–750 mbar), it is found that the stack performance is practically not affected by this operation condition, although a slightly higher power output for 150 mbar was observed. On the other hand, it is found that the stack performance increases appreciably when operated with forced air convection instead of natural convection. Finally, the continuous fuel flow operation mode does not improve the stack performance in comparison with the hydrogen dead-end mode, in spite of being preferable to operate the stack with hydrogen flow rates above 0.20 l/min.