Experimental investigation on the effects of water flow rates and wind speeds on the temperature and performance of PEM electrolyzer stacks

Tao Du, Changjian Wang, Hongsheng Ma, Yunbo Xu and Yang Li

Energy, 2025, vol. 334, issue C

Abstract: The performance degradation of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer stack can possibly be induced by the regulation of water flow rates and the loading of the wind environment. The effects of water flow rates and wind speeds on the performance evolution of the PEM electrolyzer stack were experimentally investigated using the constant current method. The runaway mechanism of electrolyzer stacks in the case of water starvation was explored. Moreover, optimization strategies for the wind environment and water starvation were proposed. The results indicate that the dual function of heating and cooling can be found by varying the water flow rate. When water flow is utilized for heat supply to the stack, the electrical performance is enhanced. In a wind environment, the heat dissipation of electrolyzer stacks can be improved by increasing the inlet water temperature, current density, or wind speed. At a wind speed of 10.1 m/s, the maximum rate of performance degradation reaches 5.11 %. It is found that increasing the water flow rate can improve the voltage uniformity of the stack in the wind environment. Furthermore, the voltage runaway is induced by the water starvation, resulting in a single electrolysis cell voltage reaching 18.06 V. The implementation of a voltage limit is an effective strategy for mitigating the severity of voltage runaway. The findings contribute to understanding the effect of water flow rate on thermal management and providing data support for the application of stacks in the wind environment.

Keywords: Hydrogen; PEM electrolyzer stack; Water flow rate; Wind speed; Electrical performance; Temperature distribution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225033365
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:334:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225033365

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.137694

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().