Activation of PEM fuel cell stack is an important factor in setting peak power of stack before its steady operations. Several methods of activation for larger capacity stacks involve operation of the stacks initially at low voltages under highly humidified conditions and at high temperatures. This is expected to improve proton conductivity of the membrane. For large area cells this method can create hot spots due to high current and non-uniform temperature distribution. Hence, an alternative approach for activating PEMFC stack at low current for vehicular applications has been investigated in this study. Conventional stack activation requires continuous supply of coolant. However for vehicular applications, a closed loop thermal management system is required. During the course of developing such a close loop thermal management system for transportation application, we have identified that the same system can be used in activating a PEM fuel cell stack. In the present study a 5kW PEMFC stack, operating on dry reactants, has been activated using a closed loop thermal management system. The activation has been carried out over a period of 620 minutes with 6 start/stop cycles. Through the start stop cycles the power delivered by the stack steadily increased from 2.5kW, to 5kW. Further, heat developed inside the fuel cell, as removed by the coolant water, has been studied and there is a proportional increase in the overall heat removed by the coolant to the total power delivered by the fuel cell. The start stop cycles are regulated based on the single cell voltages and stack temperature. Each cycle is stopped when the stack temperature reaches a set temperature of 50°C. The advantage of this procedure is that it will result in long life of the fuel cell stack, uniform membrane equilibration, and will avert hot spot generation in the electrodes at low cell potential.
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ASME 2013 11th International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology collocated with the ASME 2013 Heat Transfer Summer Conference and the ASME 2013 7th International Conference on Energy Sustainability
July 14–19, 2013
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Advanced Energy Systems Division
- Solar Energy Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-5552-2
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
PEMFC Stack Activation Through Thermal Management
Sasank Viswanath Bethapudi,
Sasank Viswanath Bethapudi
Center for Fuel Cell Technology-ARCI, Chennai, India
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N. Rajalakshmi,
N. Rajalakshmi
Center for Fuel Cell Technology-ARCI, Chennai, India
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K. S. Dhathathreyan
K. S. Dhathathreyan
Center for Fuel Cell Technology-ARCI, Chennai, India
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Sasank Viswanath Bethapudi
Center for Fuel Cell Technology-ARCI, Chennai, India
N. Rajalakshmi
Center for Fuel Cell Technology-ARCI, Chennai, India
K. S. Dhathathreyan
Center for Fuel Cell Technology-ARCI, Chennai, India
Paper No:
FuelCell2013-18203, V001T04A006; 8 pages
Published Online:
December 22, 2013
Citation
Bethapudi, SV, Rajalakshmi, N, & Dhathathreyan, KS. "PEMFC Stack Activation Through Thermal Management." Proceedings of the ASME 2013 11th International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology collocated with the ASME 2013 Heat Transfer Summer Conference and the ASME 2013 7th International Conference on Energy Sustainability. ASME 2013 11th International Conference on Fuel Cell Science, Engineering and Technology. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. July 14–19, 2013. V001T04A006. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/FuelCell2013-18203
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