A semi-empirical voltage degradation model for a low-pressure proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack under bus city driving cycles

Abstract: A voltage degradation model for the low-pressure proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack used in a fuel cell bus is presented: (1) the oxygen concentration term was derived from the PEMFC output voltage equation, and the concept of oxygen concentration resistance coefficient was introduced; (2) a 5kW low-pressure PEMFC stack was used in this study. Two similar tests were carried out before and after the stack operating in the driving cycle for 640h. First, the ohmic losses under different temperatures were measured using the current interrupt method and formulized with linear fitting method. Then, the oxygen concentration term was studied by the experiments with different air stoichiometric ratios while keeping the other operating parameters unchanged. The oxygen concentration resistance coefficient was obtained from the difference of voltages for the PEMFC stack in different air stoichiometric ratios using the genetic optimization algorithm. Then, the activation loss was obtained based on the PEMFC output voltage, the ohmic loss, and the concentration loss. The degradation model of the stack was built finally by comparing the two test results; (3) the correlation of the model to the actual experimental data is good; (4) the overvoltage of the stack with aging was analyzed using this model. The analysis showed that the activation overvoltage dominated the stack loss with about 80% of the total losses, followed by the ohmic loss. The concentration loss almost does not change with aging in the driving cycle condition; (5) the comparison of the simulation with the actual data from the PEMFC bus running for 30,000km indicated that after 36,000km the rated power of the PEMFC bus must be reduced. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]