Thermal Insulation Simulation of Small Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Abstract

The 10 W air-cooled proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a cost-effective and readily available power source with a wide range of applications in daily and industrial production. However, due to cost and process limitations, low-cost and low-power air-cooled PEMFCs can only be stored in environments above 0 ℃, unlike PEMFCs for vehicles which can be stored and operated in temperatures as low as − 30 ℃. Overcoming the limitation of low-temperature storage and starting at 0 ℃ would significantly expand the application of air-cooled PEMFCs. Therefore, this study aims to propose a solution by introducing auxiliary heating to preserve and operate the stack in environments as low as − 10 ℃, making it applicable to most of the national application scenarios. To achieve this, a thermal model was developed to analyze the performance of a 10 W fuel cell stack operating at − 10 ℃. The results indicate that an insulation box can effectively minimize heat loss from the stack, and the use of two ceramic heating plates with a power output of 0.11 W can maintain the stack's minimum temperature above 0 ℃.