Modeling the Performance Degradation of a High-Temperature PEM Fuel Cell

Mengfan Zhou, Steffen Frensch, Vincenzo Liso, Na Li, Simon Lennart Sahlin, Giovanni Cinti and Samuel Simon Araya
Additional contact information
Mengfan Zhou: AAU Energy, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg Øst, Denmark
Steffen Frensch: AAU Energy, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg Øst, Denmark
Vincenzo Liso: AAU Energy, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg Øst, Denmark
Na Li: AAU Energy, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg Øst, Denmark
Simon Lennart Sahlin: AAU Energy, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg Øst, Denmark
Giovanni Cinti: Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti 93, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Samuel Simon Araya: AAU Energy, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg Øst, Denmark

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 15, 1-21

Abstract: In this paper, the performance of a high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) was modeled using literature data. The paper attempted to combine different sources from the literature to find trends in the degradation mechanisms of HT-PEMFCs. The model focused on the activation and ohmic losses. The activation losses were defined as a function of both Pt agglomeration and loss of catalyst material. The simulations revealed that the loss of electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) was a major contributor to the total voltage loss. The ohmic losses were defined as a function of changes of acid doping level in time. The loss of conductivity increased significantly on a percentage basis over time, but its impact on the overall voltage degradation was fairly low. It was found that the evaporation of phosphoric acid caused the ohmic overpotential to increase, especially at temperatures above 180 °C. Therefore, higher temperatures can lead to shorter lifetimes but increase the average power output over the lifetime of the fuel cell owing to a higher performance at higher temperatures. The lifetime prognosis was also made at different operating temperatures. It was shown that while the fuel cell performance increased linearly with increasing temperature at the beginning of its life, the voltage decay rate increased exponentially with an increasing temperature. Based on an analysis of the voltage decay rate and lifetime prognosis, the operating temperature range between 160 °C and 170 °C could be said to be optimal, as there was a significant increase in performance compared to lower operating temperatures without too much penalty in terms of lifetime.

Keywords: fuel cells; degradation; HT-PEM; lifetime (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: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/15/5651/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/15/5651/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:15:p:5651-:d:880045

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().