Effect of Trace Contaminants on PEM Fuel Cell Performance
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Effect of Trace Contaminants on PEM Fuel Cell Performance Tony Thampan, Richard Rocheleau, Keith Bethune and Douglas Wheeler1 Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, School of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu HI 96822 1 DJW Technology, Dublin OH 43017 ABSTRACT At the Hawaii Fuel Cell Test Facility a systematic evaluation of the impact of impurities in hydrogen is underway to evaluate the effects on the performance of PEM fuel cells. Initial tests are being conducted using carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon contaminants. The effects of carbon monoxide poisons at atmospheric and pressurized operating conditions have shown a strong dependence on concentration of the impurity over the range 6.7 µmole/mole to 29.3 µmole/mole. Additionally, benzene and toluene were tested at 20 µmole/mole. Although both benzene and toluene showed no evidence of fuel cell degradation, on-line gas analysis of the exit anode stream showed that toluene hydrogenation occurs in the anode resulting in 90% conversion of the toluene to methyl-cyclohexane. INTRODUCTION Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells offer a potential replacement to the internal combustion engine due to their ultra-low tail pipe emissions, high efficiency and modular nature1,2. The simplest and highest performing PEM fuel cells are those that employ H2 as the fuel3, however at present there is an inadequate H2 fueling infrastructure to allow commercially successful mass deployment of fuel cells4. To develop the necessary H2 fueling infrastructure, H2 quality specifications must be made available to the public including all the potential stake holders to allow the investment and development of the infrastructure. Although there are tentative H2 specifications for vehicles5, the U.S. fuel cell industry requires additional testing on the effects of non- hydrogen constituents on fuel cell systems before generating a national H2 fuel standard for road vehicles6. This research is focused on a systematic study of the performance and durability of PEM fuel cells that are operated with impurities found in H2 at field relevant conditions to aid in the development of a H2 fuel standard.
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At the Hawaii Fuel Cell Test Facility (HFCTF) a systematic evaluation of the effects of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon impurities in hydrogen on the performance of PEM fuel cells is being conducted. The program is supported by the Hydrogen, Fuel Cell, and Infrastructure Technologies program of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and by the Office of Naval Research. This program is conducted in cooperation with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International, U.S. Fuel Cell Council, and the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 197 Working Group on hydrogen quality. Based on input from the various organizations listed above, contaminants that may be present in the H2 fuel were selected for fuel cell characterization. Similar to previous works7,
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