This report presents the design of a new hardware for testing performance and durability of single PEM fuel cells, more specifically their Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA). It is well known that testing hardware configurations and working conditions have an influence on the results of the testing. The same MEA, tested by different hardware, will show different performance results. Therefore, the same MEA tested in different laboratories may show different performance depending on the testing hardware used as well as the test protocol employed. The already existing testing hardware setups for active area of at least 10 cm2 are based on single-serpentine, multi-serpentine, interdigitated or mixed flow fields. None of them ensures uniform working conditions in terms of pressure, temperature and concentration of reactants across the active area.
The testing hardware proposed in this report is designed to allow a reliable inter-comparison of test results between different research centres. It aims at operating conditions as far as possible uniform across the MEA active area. This is done by minimising the contribution of the specific hardware setup features on the experimental results. The condition to achieve this, is a uniform distribution of all relevant physical quantities of reactant species, such as flow velocity, pressure, temperature and chemical concentration. However, the operating conditions for tests at a single cell level are still representative to the ones for the real, commercial fuel cell setups. Also important is that the compression of the tested MEA is well controlled during the whole performance/durability test.
Finally, it is important to clarify that that the proposed testing hardware is not designed for establishing advanced flow fields with the purpose of improving the performance of a single cell.
The testing hardware design was initiated based on a request from automotive OEMs in the frame of the Working Group on harmonisation of PEM fuel cells for automotive application of the Fuel cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking
The report provides a detailed description of the testing hardware design, and the results of its validation experiments.
Bednarek, T. and Tsotridis, G., Development of reference hardware for harmonised testing of PEM single cell fuel cells, EUR 30592 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2021, ISBN 978-92-76-30231-5, doi:10.2760/83818, JRC123219.
2021-02-19
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC123219
978-92-76-30231-5 (online)
1831-9424 (online)
EUR 30592 EN , OP KJ-NA-30592-EN-N (online)
