Monodimensional modeling and experimental study of the dynamic behavior of proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack operating in dead-end mode

The dynamic behavior of a five cells proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack operating in dead-end mode has been studied at room temperature, both experimentally and by simulation. Its performances in “fresh” and “aged” state have been compared. The cells exhibited two different response times: the first one at about 40 ms, corresponding to the time needed to charge the double-layer capacitance, and the second one at about 15–20 s. The first time response was not affected by the ageing process, despite the decrease of the performances, while the second one was. Our simulations indicated that a high amount of liquid water was present in the stack, even in “fresh” state. This liquid water is at the origin of the performances decrease with ageing, due to its effect on decreasing the actual GDL porosity that in turn cause the starving of the active layer with oxygen. As a consequence, it appears that water management issue in a fuel cell operating in dead-end mode at room temperature mainly consists in avoiding pore flooding instead of providing enough water to maintain membrane conductivity.