Impedance characterization of high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack under the influence of carbon monoxide and methanol vapor

Abstract

This work presents a comprehensive mapping of electrochemical impedance measurements under the influence of CO and methanol vapor contamination of the anode gas in a high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell, at varying load current. Electrical equivalent circuit model parameters based on experimental evaluation of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements were used to quantify the changes caused by different contamination levels. The changes are generally in good agreement with what is found in the literature. It is shown that an increased level of CO contamination resulted in an increase in the high frequency and intermediate frequency impedances. When adding CO and methanol to the anode gas, the low frequency part of the impedance spectrum is especially affected at high load currents, which is clearly seen as a result of the high load current resolution used in this work. The negative effects of methanol vapor are found to be more pronounced on the series resistance. When CO and methanol vapor are both present in anode gas, the entire frequency spectrum and thereby all the equivalent circuit model parameters are affected. It is also shown that the trends of contamination effects are similar for all the test cases, namely, CO alone, methanol alone and a mix of the two, suggesting that effects of methanol may include oxidation into CO on the catalyst layer.