A Closed-Loop Water Management Methodology for PEM Fuel Cell System Based on Impedance Information Feedback

Xinjie Xu, Kai Li (), Zhenjie Liao, Jishen Cao and Renkang Wang
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Xinjie Xu: School of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
Kai Li: School of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
Zhenjie Liao: School of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
Jishen Cao: School of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
Renkang Wang: School of Automation Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 20, 1-16

Abstract: Water management is an important issue for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). The research mainly focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of faults. However, faults harm PEMFC and cause its durability decay, whatever duration they last. This study designs a closed-loop water management system to control the water content in a reasonable range which can not only avoid the faults of hydration and flooding but also improve the performance and durability of PEMFC. The proposed system introduces the measurement methodology based on the phase of single-frequency impedance, which corresponds numerically well with the water content. Moreover, two preferred operating conditions, cathode air stoichiometry and stack temperature, are adopted to regulate the water content with a trade-off between the time cost and power loss. The open-loop characteristics of water content on the temperature and air stoichiometry are studied to design the corresponding control strategy. Findings suggest that air stoichiometry is suitable for large regulation requirements of water content, while the temperature is suitable to meet small demands. Finally, the proposed closed-loop water management system is validated by experiments in variable-load and constant-load with disturbance situations. The results indicate that the proposed system effectively controls the water content within a 3% deviation from the desired value.

Keywords: PEMFC; water management; impedance; phase angle; air stoichiometry; temperature (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 (2)

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