Redefinition of stack efficiency and optimization of stack performance for PEMFCs

Abstract

In the first part of this work, we present a general redefinition of the PEMFC stack efficiency taking into account all power losses directly connected with the stack performance and the applied stack operating conditions. These are the stack fuel loss, the stack polarization- and reaction entropy- and enthalpy losses, and the theoretical losses for stack feed stream conditioning. In general, the latter includes humidification and pressurization (or pumping) of the reactants as well as pumping of the coolant. Furthermore, examples will be given which power losses are relevant for different applications and which are dominant and have to be considered. By the use of this new figure of merit, the efficiencies of two stacks can be compared to each other in a system-relevant way and can be determined for a given application scenario. In addition, the accompanying redefined balance-of-plant efficiency is a parameter characterizing uniquely the effectiveness of the BoP design and of the BoP components. In the second part of this work, a procedure for the optimization of the PEMFC stack performance will be highlighted. The performance of a stack at a given constant load strongly depends on the operating conditions characterized by 7 parameters. These are the stack temperature, the stoichiometric values of the reactants, the relative humidity of the reactants, and the pressures in both compartments of the stack. The effect of these parameters on the stack performance is non-linear and synergistic. A separate optimization of each single parameter is not meaningful. Therefore, a direct-search algorithm, the Nelder-Mead simplex, was used for the simultaneous optimization of all parameters.