Development of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stack for an underwater vehicle

•A cascade-type PEM fuel cell stack was developed for an underwater vehicle.•The stack uses hydrogen and oxygen for the propulsion of the underwater vehicle.•A high efficiency of 65% results in low reactant consumptions.•High hydrogen and oxygen utilizations of 99.89% and 99.68%, respectively, were obtained.•The durability of the stack was confirmed by a 3500-h performance test.

This paper presents a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack that is specifically designed for the propulsion of an underwater vehicle (UV). The stack for a UV must be continuously operated in a closed space using hydrogen and pure oxygen; it should meet various performance requirements such as high hydrogen and oxygen utilizations, low hydrogen and oxygen consumptions, a high ramp-up rate, and a long lifetime. To this end, a cascade-type stack design is employed and the cell components, including the membrane electrode assembly and bipolar plate, are evaluated using long-term performance tests. The feasibility of a fabricated 4-kW-class stack was confirmed through various performance evaluations. The proposed cascade-type stack exhibited a high efficiency of 65% and high hydrogen and oxygen utilizations of 99.89% and 99.68%, respectively, resulting in significantly lesser purge-gas emissions to the outside of the stack. The load-following test was successfully performed at a high ramp-up rate. The lifetime of the stack was confirmed by a 3500-h performance test, from which the degradation rate of the cell voltage was obtained. The advantages of the cascade-type stack were also confirmed by comparing its performance with that of a single-stage stack operating in dead-end mode.

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