Numerical Study of the Cold-Start Process of PEM Fuel Cells with Different Current Density Operating Modes
Publication: Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 6
Abstract
A 1D transient model was proposed to investigate the effects of the current density operating modes on the cold-start process of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. The temperature evolution of the cell is solved by considering the reversible heat, reaction heat, Joule heat, and phase change heat. Four current density operating modes were studied based on this model: constant mode, gradually increasing mode, stepwise increasing mode, and zigzag mode. The results show that there is a threshold for the initial current density that influences the relationship between the successful cold start and current density. The cell can successfully start at a lower operating temperature by increasing the initial current density when the initial current density is below this threshold value. However, the lowest temperature for successful cold start increases if the initial current density exceeds the threshold value. Finally, a chart was plotted to indicate the regions of successful and failed self-start processes at different operating temperatures for the studied current density operating modes, respectively. The chart suggests that the cells with gradually and stepwise increasing current density modes have nearly equivalent cold-start performance, and are both better than the constant and zigzag modes.
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Data Availability Statement
The following data or models that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request:
1.
data of comparison of numerical simulation results and experimental results (Fig. 1); and
2.
numerical simulation data of PEM fuel cell cold-startup process (Figs. 3–9).
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China through Project No. 51606028 and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China through Project No. DUT15RC (3)122.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 6 • December 2020
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 27, 2020
Accepted: Jun 18, 2020
Published online: Aug 29, 2020
Published in print: Dec 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Jan 29, 2021
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