Effect of start-stop cycles and hydrogen temperature on the performance of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC)

Vehicular application of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) poses durability and stability issues toward the multiple start-stops operation. Start-stop cycle leads to performance decay for PEMFC over time. Considering its reliability, PEMFC´s performance recovery becomes a major concern. In electrical vehicle which does not used hydrogen tank due to safety, PEMFC require fuel processor to produce hydrogen as fuel source from ethanol. Output temperature of hydrogen from fuel processor is about 80°C, which is quite high for PEMFC. Temperature is alleged having an impact on the performance of PEMFC. This research is focused on studying the effect of start-stop cycle and hydrogen temperature on the performance of PEMFC under constant loads using electrochemical characterisation. The number of start-stop cycle was varied by 10, 20 and 30 cycles under constant loads of 1 and 0.5 ampere. The temperature that used for hydrogen was 40°C. The result shows that heating hydrogen to 40°C does not have significant effect to PEMFC´s performance. However, enhancing start-stop cycle number has increased degradation of PEMFC stack.