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Real Time Water Contents Measurement Based on Step Response for PEM Fuel Cell

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Abstract

This paper proposes a real time monitoring method of the status of flooding and drying out of a proton exchange membrane in a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). The PEMFC stack is modeled using the simplified Randle’s equivalent electrical circuit. The measured stack voltages after a step current consumption provides the criterion for the water balance condition in the PEMFC. The voltage response has different characteristics in drying out and flooding conditions and it is possible to find membrane resistance and activation resistance corresponding to the equivalent circuit model. Since these resistance elements show a different behavior in each of the water balance states, it is possible to judge the water balance condition in the PEMFC. Furthermore, this method requires no additional costly equipment and needs only simple signal processing. The proposed method is applied to a PEMFC stack operating in normal, drying, and flooding conditions, with the results verifying that the new method can monitor the water contents of the stack.

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Abbreviations

\({\text{A}}_{\text{c}}\) :

Catalyst specific area, cm2/mg

a:

Transfer coefficient

BOP:

Balance of plant

\({\text{C}}\) :

Double layer capacitance

\({\text{E}}_{\text{c}}\) :

Activation energy, 66 kJ/mol

F:

Faraday’s constant, 96,487 C/mole pressure

h:

Relative humidity of reactants

I:

Current density, A/cm2

\({\text{I}}_{0}\) :

Exchange current density, A/cm2

K:

Ion conductivity

\({\text{L}}_{\text{c}}\) :

Catalyst loading, mg/cm2

\(\mu\) :

Number of moles of a water molecule compared to \({\text{SO}}_{3}^{ - }\) in electrolyte membrane

n:

Number of electron per molecule of hydrogen, 2

P:

Pressure, kPa

\({\text{R}}_{\text{a}}\) :

Activation resistance

\({\text{R}}_{\text{m}}\) :

Membrane resistance

\({\text{R}}_{\text{u}}\) :

Universal gas constant, 8.314 J/mol/K

T:

Temperature, K

t:

Thickness of electrolyte membrane

\({\text{V}}_{\text{R}}\) :

Voltage drop by membrane resistance

\({\text{V}}_{\text{C}}\) :

Voltage drop by membrane and double layer capacitance parallel circuit

α:

Initial voltage value for the given step current, α

β:

Initial current value

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Acknowledgements

This paper was supported by the Graduate School of Research Program of KOREATECH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University of Technology and Education, 1600, Chungjeol-ro, Byeongcheon-myeon, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-Si, Chungcheongnam-do, 31253, Republic of Korea

    Dong-Hoon Shin & Seung-Ryeol Yoo

  2. Department of Electronic Engineering, Kangnam University, 40, Gangnam-ro, Giheung-gu, Yongin-Si, Gyeonggi-do, 16979, Republic of Korea

    Young-Hyun Lee

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  1. Dong-Hoon Shin
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  2. Seung-Ryeol Yoo
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  3. Young-Hyun Lee
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Correspondence to Seung-Ryeol Yoo.

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Shin, DH., Yoo, SR. & Lee, YH. Real Time Water Contents Measurement Based on Step Response for PEM Fuel Cell. Int. J. of Precis. Eng. and Manuf.-Green Tech. 6, 883–892 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40684-019-00099-0

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