Experimental Analysis of the Effects of CO and CO2 on High Temperature PEM Fuel Cell Performance using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy

The use of high temperature PEM (HTPEM) fuel cells running on reformate gas shows comparable performance to HTPEM fuel cells running on pure hydrogen, even when running at high levels of CO, as long as high operating temperatures are ensured. The increased operating temperatures of these types of fuel cells offer many advantages, particularly the increased desorption rate of CO on the anode catalyst. In order to evaluate the impact of CO and CO2 on the dynamic performance of the HTPEM fuel cell, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been implemented in Labview, and used on BASF Celtec P2100 fuel cells. EIS is a powerful non-invasive measurement technique, which offers more detailed information on what effects the use of reformate gas has on the performance of the fuel cell.