Development and preliminary testing of a unitized regenerative fuel cell based on PEM technology

✍ Scribed by S.A. Grigoriev; P. Millet; V.I. Porembsky; V.N. Fateev

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 597 KB
• Volume: 36
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0360-3199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.07.011

✦ Synopsis

Results related to the development and testing of a unitized regenerative fuel cell (URFC) based on proton-exchange membrane (PEM) technology are reported. A URFC is an electrochemical device which can operate either as an electrolyser for the production of hydrogen and oxygen (water electrolysis mode) or as a H 2 /O 2 fuel cell for the production of electricity and heat (fuel cell mode). The URFC stack described in this paper is made of seven electrochemical cells (256 cn 2 active area each). The nominal electric power consumption in electrolysis mode is of 1.5 kW and the nominal electric power production in fuel cell mode is 0.5 kW. A mean cell voltage of 1.74 V has been measured during water electrolysis at 0.5 A cm À2 (85% efficiency based on the thermoneutral voltage of the water splitting reaction) and a mean cell voltage of 0.55 V has been measured during fuel cell operation at the same current density (37% electric efficiency based on the thermoneutral voltage). Preliminary stability tests are satisfactory. Further tests are scheduled to assess the potentialities of the stack on the long term.