• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.144-154
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• 2016

HT-PEMFC (high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell) using PA (phosphoric acid) doped PBI (polybenzimidazole) membrane has been researched for extending the lifetime. However, the existing work on durability of HT-PEMFC focuses on identifying degradation causes of lab scale. The short life time of HT-PEMFC is still the problem for its commercialization. In this paper, an operating method to maximize life time of 5kW HT-PEMFC stack are proposed. The proposed method includes major steps such as minimization of OCV (Open Circuit Voltage) exposure, control of the proper stack temperature, and N2 purging for the stack. This long life operating method was based on the fragmentary results of degradation from previous research works. Experimentally, the 5 kW homemade HT-PEMFC stack was operated for a long time based on the proposed method and the stack successfully can operate within the desired degradation rate for the target life time.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.118-123
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• 2006

Degradation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) that is facilitated by on/off cycles is one of the most important issues for commercialization of fuel cell vehicles. When a PEMFC stack is shut down, residual hydrogen and induce high voltage equivalent to open circuit voltage to the cathode side that might cause sintering of Pt catalyst and facilitate formation of hydrogen peroxide at the anode side that might decompose $Nafionc\'{A}$ membrane. In this study, degradation of PEMFC exposed to repetitive on/off cycles was investigated by measuring i-V characteristics, ac impedance, cyclic voltammograms, gas leak, cross-sectional SEM images, and TEM images. To prevent degradation of PEMFC caused by the residual gases, hydrogen was removed from anode gas channel by gas-purging and by using a dummy resistance, that were found to be a very effective method.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• 제55권1호
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• pp.107-114
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• 2017

The performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) could be deteriorated when fuel contains contaminants such as carbon monoxide (CO) or hydrogen sulfide ($H_2S$). Generally, $H_2S$ is introduced in hydrogen by steam reforming of hydrocarbon which has mercaptan as odorant. $H_2S$ poisoning effect on PEMFC performance was examined on this study. Pure hydrogen injection, voltage cycling and water circulation methods were compared as performance recovery methods. The PEMFC performance was analyzed using electrochemical methods such as polarization curve, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Pure hydrogen injection and voltage cycling methods showed low recovery ratio, however, water circulation method showed high recovery ratio over 95%. Because anode was directly poisoned by $H_2S$, anode water circulation showed higher recovery ratio compared to the other methods. Water circulation method was developed to recover PEMFC performance from $H_2S$ poisoning. This method could contribute to PEMFC durability and commercialization.

• Membrane Journal
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• 제30권6호
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• pp.395-408
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• 2020

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have gained much attention as eco-friendly energy conversion devices without emission of environmental pollutant. Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) that can transfer proton from anode to cathode and also prevent fuel cross-over has been regarded as a key component of PEMFCs. Although perfluorinated polymer membranes such as Nafion® were already commercialized in PEMFCs, their high cost and toxic byproduct generated by degradation have still limited the wide spread of PEMFCs. To overcome these issues, development of hydrocarbon based PEMs have been studied. Incorporation of cross-linked structure into the hydrocarbon based PEM system has been reported to fabricate the PEMs showing both high proton conductivity and outstanding physicochemical stability. This study focused on the various cross-linking strategies to the preparation of cross-linked PEMs based on hydrocarbon polymers with ion conducting groups for application in PEMFCs.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.65-67
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• 2003

The present paper highlights on the need to understand the correlation of the characteristics of the catalyst layer with the performance of the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). This paper deals with the correlation of the platinum loading in the catalyst layer and the performance of the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell and also the correlation of the required hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity in the catalyst layer to get the optimum performance under given operating conditions.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• 제24권2호
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• pp.91-101
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• 2012

A 200 W portable polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system is developed. The PEMFC system consists of an air-cooled fuel cell stack module, a fuel supply subsystem, a power management subsystem, and a control electronics subsystem. The control logic is designed for the stable system operation. The system-level performance evaluation discloses that the present PEMFC system provides a rated power output of 200.5 W at 13.4 V with the maximum balance-of-plant (BOP) efficiency of 72%, and maximum system efficiency based on lower heating value (LHV) is 37% at 120.7 W system power output.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• 제24권5호
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• pp.393-400
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• 2013

The air supply system has a significant effect on the efficiency of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) systems. The performance and efficiency of automotive PEMFC systems are greatly influenced by their air supply system configurations. This study deals with the system simulation of automotive PEMFC systems using MATLAB/Simulink framework. In this study, a low-pressure operating PEMFC system adopting blower sub-module (turbo-blower) is modeled to investigate the effects of stack operating temperature and air stoichiometry on the parasitic power and efficiency of automotive PEMFC systems. In addition, the PEMFC net system efficiency and parasitic power of air supply system are mainly compared for the two types (low-pressure operating and high-pressure operating) of automotive PEMFC systems under the same net power conditions. It is suggested that the obtained results from this system approach can be applied for establishing the novel operating strategies for FC vehicles.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.181-189
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• 2018

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system receives great attention as a promising power device for automotive applications. For the wide commercialization, the efficiency and performance of automotive PEMFC system should be further improved in terms of total system (stack and balance of plant [BOP]). Air supply module, which is a major part of the BOP, greatly affects the efficiency of automotive PEMFC system. In this paper, a systematic study on the low-pressure automotive PEMFC system was made in an attempt to enhance the net system efficiency. This study mainly presents an investigation of the effect of blower configuration (1-blower and 2-blower) on the net system efficiency of automotive PEMFC system. For this purpose, the effect of operating pressure and cathode stoichiometry on the system efficiency was investigated with stack temperature under the fixed net system power condition. Results indicate that 1-blower system is better in system efficiency over 2-blower system under an air stoichiometry of 2. However, 2-blower system is better in system efficiency under an air stoichiometry of 3. The simulation results show that the optimum operating strategy needs to be established for various blower system configurations considering blower performance maps.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.133-137
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• 2006

Ion permeability characteristics in nano-polymer membrane structures are performed to investigate the chemical composition and characteristics of MEA(Membrane Electrolyte Assembly) which is one of the most important parts to decide the performance in PEMFC(Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell) system. Subsequently, the MEA manufacturing process is presented for the uniformed MEA product. In the meantime, the analysis of SEM(Scanning Electron Microscope) is carried out in order to investigate the joint aspect and chemical composition of MEA. As a result of SEM analysis, it is found that the bonded catalyst and carbon composition contain the reasonable amount to get unit cell output. It is also found that the humidification gives the better performance result slightly.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 한국정밀공학회 2006년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.547-548
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• 2006

This study focuses on a determination of amount of Pt in the Pt/C for catalysts of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). PEMFC offer low weight and high power density and being considered fur automotive and stationary power applications. The PEMFC behavior is quite complex is influenced by several factors, including catalysts and structure of electrode and membrane type. Catalyst of electrode is important factor for PEMFC. One of the obstacles preventing polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells from commercialization is the high cost of noble metals to be used as catalyst, such as platinum. To effectively use these metals, they have to be will dispersed to small particles on conductive carbon supports. The optimal amount of Pt in Pt/C was investigated by using polarization curves in single cell with $H_2/O_2$ operation.