Effect of stack configuration on the performance of 10W PEMFC stack

10W급 고분자 전해질 연료전지 스택의 구조적 차이에 다른 운전 특성 비교

A small PEM fuel cell has two different stack configurations such as active and passive stacks. The active stack has a distintion of high power density although it makes system complex by using alr blower and related BOPs resulting in large system volume. On the contrary, passive stack has an advantage of compact system because it doesn't need air supplying devices although it reveals relatively low stack power density. In this study we fabricated two 10W PEMFC stacks with different stack configurations, active and passive stacks, and tested their performance and stability. The active stack consists of 13cells with an active area of $5cm^2$. The passive stack has 12cells with an active area of $16cm^2$. When we compared the stack performance of those stacks, the active stack showed higher power density compared to the passive stack, particularly at high voltage regions. However, at low voltage and high current regions, the passive stack performance was comparable to the active stack. The stack stability was largely dependent on the fuel humidity, particularly for active stack. At low humidity conditions, the active stack performance was decreased continuously and the cell voltage distribution was not uniform showing seriously low cell voltage at center cells mainly due to the cell drying. The passive stack showed relatively stable behavior at low humidity and the stack performance was largely dependent on the atmospheric conditions.