Development of optimal conditioning method to improve economic efficiency of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells

Abstract

This study presents an economical conditioning method for polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells through a parametric study investigating the factors affecting online conditioning methods. First, we compared the operating conditions between constant current (CC) mode and constant voltage (CV) mode conditioning to understand the effects of current and potential differences on conditioning. We found that CV mode conditioning is at least one hour faster at the same load. This is because unlike CV mode conditioning, which has a constant load over the entire range of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), CC mode conditioning features current flow through the existing passage of the pre-activated triple phase boundary of the MEA so that the electronic load is not entirely used in the conditioning process. Second, the optimization of CV mode conditioning was conducted by controlling the conditioning temperature. Lastly, the economics of the proposed method were analyzed by comparing it with existing conditioning methods. Using this optimal conditioning method can reduce the consumption of hydrogen during conditioning by ~87.5% compared to previous methods. The findings from this study provide the means to lower the actual production cost of fuel cells, thereby ensuring market access. © 2020 by the authors.