PEM fuel cells — The basic characteristics

With regards to their high effectiveness in transformation of input energy of chemical bonds into the output electric and heat energy and environmental friendly nature, fuel cells have been addressed with great potential prospective. There are various installations of large stationary sources in all over the globe, with unit output of megawatts and these are based on the fuel cells principle. The current development in this field aims towards the increase in efficiency on transformation of fuel energy into the output energy. This paper describes basic characteristics PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) type fuel cells. Those are low-temperature fuel cells, which are currently commonly used in broad range of applications both in the field of stationary or mobile assemblies. This paper is linked to another one, which deals with the effect of fuel parameters on the efficiency of transformation of energy from chemical bonds into utilisable electric and heat energy as well as the quality of energy supplied.