Impedance characterization of high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack under the influence of carbon monoxide and methanol vapor

Christian Jeppesen, Pierpaolo Polverino, Søren Juhl Andreasen, Samuel Simon Araya, Simon Lennart Sahlin, Cesare Pianese, Søren Knudsen Kær*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This work presents a comprehensive mapping of electrochemical impedance measurements under the influence of CO and methanol vapor contamination of the anode gas in a high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell, at varying load current. Electrical equivalent circuit model parameters based on experimental evaluation of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements were used to quantify the changes caused by different contamination levels. The changes are generally in good agreement with what is found in the literature. It is shown that an increased level of CO contamination resulted in an increase in the high frequency and intermediate frequency impedances. When adding CO and methanol to the anode gas, the low frequency part of the impedance spectrum is especially affected at high load currents, which is clearly seen as a result of the high load current resolution used in this work. The negative effects of methanol vapor are found to be more pronounced on the series resistance. When CO and methanol vapor are both present in anode gas, the entire frequency spectrum and thereby all the equivalent circuit model parameters are affected. It is also shown that the trends of contamination effects are similar for all the test cases, namely, CO alone, methanol alone and a mix of the two, suggesting that effects of methanol may include oxidation into CO on the catalyst layer.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume42
Issue number34
Pages (from-to)21901-21912
Number of pages12
ISSN0360-3199
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2017

Keywords

  • Fuel cell
  • PBI
  • Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
  • CO
  • Methanol vapor
  • Equivalent electrical circuit

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