PEM FUEL CELL INTEGRATION WITH A HYDROGEN GENERATOR ON A BENCH

The main intent of this project was to bench test a next generation Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell system with a Hydrogen on Demand Fuel Source. This system will require the following elements to run: a fuel cell stack, a fuel source, a humidifier, a compressor and motor, an electronic controller, a cooling pump and motor(s), a pressure transducer, a hydrogen shut-off valve, a hydrogen purge valve(s), a tank for hydrogen waste storage, and a tank and apparatus for the hydrogen generation. A previous version of the fuel cell system has been demonstrated for numerous uses and its application need not be discussed here. Instead, the intent of this project was to demonstrate the improvements of the next generation of fuel cell system by bench-testing it and comparing it to the previous version.