A comparison of Fuel Cell Testing protocols - A case study: Protocols used by the U.S. Department of Energy, European Union, International Electrotechnical Commission/Fuel Cell Testing and Standardization Network, and Fuel Cell Technical Team

The stacks were cycled using the duty profile in each protocol for 200 h; stack performance was measured every 100 h. Analysis of the relative changes in the average cell potentials at 180 A showed that the rate of performance decline could be ordered as IEC > ECE R15, the latter being slightly greater than or approximately equal to DST and FCTT. Comparing this ordering to the length of time at full power in the duty cycle with the degradation rates shows that they are related. Most likely, the underlying cause of performance decline can be attributed to the manner in which the product water interacts with the stack components.