Failure mode investigation of fuel cell for vehicle application

Abstract

The durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) has been posing a key technical challenge to commercial spread of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). To improve the durability, it is necessary to optimize the fuel cell system (FCS) design against failure modes. The fuel cell durability research method at FCS scale was exhibited, and the failure modes of fuel cell were experimentally investigated in this paper. It is found that the fuel cell dry operation, start/stop cycle and gas diffusion layer (GDL) flooding are typical failure modes of fuel cells. After the modifications against the failure modes, the durability of FCSs is improved to over 3000 h step by step.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) / fuel cell system (FCS) / durability / failure mode / fuel cell vehicle (FCV) / carbon corrosion / water management

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2017 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg