Investigating the effects of methanol-water vapor mixture on a PBI-based high temperature PEM fuel cell

Samuel Simon Araya, Søren Juhl Andreasen, Heidi Venstrup Nielsen, Søren Knudsen Kær

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32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of methanol and water vapor on the performance of a high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC). A H3PO4-doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membrane electrode assembly (MEA), Celtec P2100 of 45 cm2 of active surface area from BASF was employed. A long-term durability test of around 1250 h was performed, in which the concentrations of methanol-water vapor mixture in the anode feed gas were varied. The fuel cell showed a continuous performance decay in the presence of vapor mixtures of methanol and water of 5% and 8% by volume in anode feed. Impedance measurements followed by equivalent circuit fitting revealed that the effects were most significant for intermediate-high frequency resistances, implying that charge transfer losses were the most significant losses. Vapor mixture of 3% in feed, however, when introduced after operation at 8%, showed positive or no effect on the cell's performance in these tests.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume37
Issue number23
Pages (from-to)18231–18242
Number of pages11
ISSN0360-3199
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012

Keywords

  • High temperature PEM
  • Fuel cell
  • Methanol
  • Impedance spectroscopy

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