Experimental evaluation of PEM Fuel Cell systems efficiency

Abstract

Nowadays, the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is considered as one of the most promising sources of energy with zero emissions. Therefore, maintaining the PEMFC system in its optimal operating conditions is one of the most important research orientations in the domain. In fact, the system's efficiency depends highly on the electric power generated, the amount of hydrogen used and the power consumed by the air compressor to operate the fuel cell stack. In this work, the experimental efficiency of the PEMFC system has been evaluated for different values of the PEMFC parameters such as purges frequency, stack temperature, air relative humidity, pressures and mass flow rates of reagents. Then the experimental results show that for a given load current, an optimal efficiency can be obtained by choosing the right values for the parameters.