Experiments on PEMFC performance enhancement by pulsating cathode flow

Experiments have been performed to investigate effects of pulsating cathode flow on a 10-cell proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack. For all the experiments, the flow rate, temperature and relative humidity of hydrogen at the anode inlet are fixed. The effects of the pulsating frequency, amplitude and flow rate at the cathode inlet on performance of 10-cell PEMFC are examined. The polarization and power curves show that the power output and limiting current is substantially increased when the pulsating component is added to cathode flow channel. The maximum power output increases by up to 38% and enhancement of the overall performance is more pronounced at lower flow rate region.