Experimental design and assessment of a novel mixed-cooling proton exchange membrane fuel cells stack for enhanced power generation and thermal management

Mingguang Yang, Zhenhua Quan, Lincheng Wang, Zejian Chang, Yaohua Zhao, Lei Xing and Jin Xuan

Applied Energy, 2025, vol. 386, issue C, No S0306261925003034

Abstract: In this study, a novel mixed-cooling proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) stack is proposed and fabricated, which has been specially tailored with an efficient mixed cooling pathway. Compared with conventional air-cooled stacks and previous-generation split-cooling stacks equipped with micro heat pipe arrays, the mixed-cooling stack achieves higher load capacity, improved power generation performance, and superior thermal performance. In addition, the mixed-cooling stack is configured with fewer fans, resulting in lower additional power consumption and a more uniform voltage distribution. The experimental results indicate that the load capacity of the mixed-cooling stack is 14.3 % higher than that of the split-cooling stack and shows a 71.4 % increase compared to the ordinary air-cooled PEMFC stack of the same specification. At the same current, the net power output of the mixed-cooling stack is 65.9 W higher than that of the split-cooling stack. When operating at 30 A, the maximum voltage difference for a single cell within the mixed-cooling stack is only 0.100 V, and the voltage uniformity index is 70.2 % lower than that of the split-cooling stack. Furthermore, the temperature uniform index of the mixed-cooling stack is superior to that of the split-cooling stack under identical current conditions.

Keywords: Proton exchange membrane fuel cells; Efficient mixed cooling pathway; Power generation performance; Thermal control; Thermal performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.125573

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