Experimental Study on Critical Membrane Water Content of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells for Cold Storage at ?50 °C

Xiaokang Yang, Jiaqi Sun, Guang Jiang, Shucheng Sun, Zhigang Shao, Hongmei Yu, Fangwei Duan and Yingxuan Yang
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Xiaokang Yang: Fuel Cell System and Engineering Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Fuel Cells & Hybrid Power Sources, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
Jiaqi Sun: Fuel Cell System and Engineering Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Fuel Cells & Hybrid Power Sources, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
Guang Jiang: Fuel Cell System and Engineering Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Fuel Cells & Hybrid Power Sources, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
Shucheng Sun: Fuel Cell System and Engineering Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Fuel Cells & Hybrid Power Sources, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
Zhigang Shao: Fuel Cell System and Engineering Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Fuel Cells & Hybrid Power Sources, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
Hongmei Yu: Fuel Cell System and Engineering Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Fuel Cells & Hybrid Power Sources, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China
Fangwei Duan: Electric Power Research Institute of State Grid Liaoning Electric Power Supply Co. Ltd., Shenyang 110055, China
Yingxuan Yang: Electric Power Research Institute of State Grid Liaoning Electric Power Supply Co. Ltd., Shenyang 110055, China

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 15, 1-17

Abstract: Membrane water content is of vital importance to the freezing durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Excessive water freezing could cause irreversible degradation to the cell components and deteriorate the cell performance and lifetime. However, there are few studies on the critical membrane water content, a threshold beyond which freezing damage occurs, for cold storage of PEMFCs. In this work, we first proposed a method for measuring membrane water content using membrane resistance extracted from measured high frequency resistance (HFR) based on the finding that the non-membrane resistance part of the measured HFR is constant within the range of membrane water content of 2.98 to 14.0. Then, freeze/thaw cycles were performed from ?50 °C to 30 °C with well controlled membrane water content. After 30 cycles, cells with a membrane water content of 8.2 and 7.7 exhibited no performance degradation, while those higher than 8.2 showed significant performance decay. Electrochemical tests revealed that electrochemical surface area (ECSA) reduction and charge transfer resistance increase are the main reasons for the degradation. These results indicate that the critical membrane water content for successful cold storage at ?50 °C is 8.2.

Keywords: freezing durability; cold start; membrane water content; performance degradation; proton exchange membrane fuel cell (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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