Impact of Designated Contaminants in Hydrogen on the Performance of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

Abstract

Platinum along with the Perfluorosulfonic acid membrane are at the heart of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. The REDOX reaction and the transport of proton across the membrane enables continuous electricity generation by the fuel cell. While these two elements enable electrochemical reaction and mass transport of ion, they are highly susceptibility to certain designated contaminants as identified by ISO 14687. The current work critically analyzes the impact of the designated contaminants on the fuel cell performance with specific focus on the contamination pathway. Emphasis is on sub-PPM level contaminants considering that ISO 14687 imposes some extremely stringent limitations on the quantity. On the PPM level contaminants, the impact analysis is broadly from the perspective of dilution, both thermochemically and electrochemically. One of the key outcome of the current work is the recognition that work on the impact of contamination levels in the vicinity of ISO specified numbers is extremely limited. Most of the analysis, is carried out for contaminant levels anywhere between 10 to 100 times larger than the prescribed limits. A consensus that seems to be evolving pertains to a call for raising the designated limits of contamination.