Longevity test results for reformate polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stacks

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stacks offer a great potential for combined heat and power (CHP) applications because of their good performance and technical maturity of the key components. Nonetheless, some developmental issues have remained open. Among those are the long-term stability with respect to performance degradation and sudden death phenomena like membrane rupture.In a development program for domestic CHP systems, PEMFC stacks intended for long-term operation on reformate were developed. Development targets were high performance, high media utilization, good longevity and low degradation rates. In this paper, results on long-term performance tests of these stacks are reported. Operating times of more than 15,000 h with degradation rates of approx. 10 μV h−1 have been achieved.