Investigation of the Effect of Humidity Level of H2 on Cell Performance of a HT‐PEM Fuel Cell

Abstract

AbstractHigh temperature polymer electrolyte membrane (HT‐PEM) fuel cell is often integrated with a light fossil fuel reformer to improve the fuel flexibility. Although the operation of HT‐PEM fuel cell does not rely on the humidification of the inlet gas, water vapor is found in the reformate gas which is fed to the HT‐PEM fuel cell. In this work, the influence of water content in the H2 to the cell performance of a HT‐PEM fuel cell is studied under different operating temperatures. Under lower operating temperature of 140 °C, the HT‐PEM fuel cell shows the best performance with low water content in the H2. With increasing water content, the cell performance decreases. Under the operating temperature of 160 °C, the best cell performance is achieved with an intermediate water content in the H2. While under high operating temperature of 180 °C, the cell performance shows an increasing trend with the increase in the water content. By measuring the impedance spectra of the HT‐PEM fuel cell, the reasons for the different influence of anode humidification in cell performance at different operating temperatures were investigated.