Energy and exergy analysis of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC)

This study investigates the thermodynamic performance of a 1 kW self-humidified Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell. The first law analysis of thermodynamic is performed both experimentally and theoretically and the second law analysis or thermodynamic is performed at different operating temperature ratio (T/T0) varies from 1 to 1.2 and operating pressure ratio (P/P0) varies from 1 to 2 for different power output. Hydrogen is used as a fuel and in order to perform the thermodynamic analysis hydrogen, air, product water and exit air flow rates and specific physical are calculated. The energy and exergy balances for the control volume are used to calculate the efficiencies of energy and exergy of the PEM fuel cell. All results were compared with each other to see the effects of operating temperature and pressure on performance. As a result, it was observed that both increment in operating pressure and operating temperature improves the exergetic performance.