AN APPROACH FOR PROTON EXCHANGEMEMBRANE FUEL CELL VIA DESIGN OFEXPERIMENTS FOR OPTIMIZATION

The fuel cells especially with hydrogen based are seen as a promising electrochemical energy conversion devices that would satiate the energy demands of the next generation. As “green energy” devices, fuel cells have received a lot of focus due to the high energy conversion efficiency of hydrogen and low temperature of operation. In the present work, a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell having an active surface area of 25 cm2 was fitted with different Membrane Electrode Assemblies (MEAs) are produced using Nafion®212 polymeric membrane and platinum supported multi-walled carbon nanotubes (20% Pt/MWCNT) as a nanocatalyst. MEAs were developed with variable nanocatalyst loadings. In experimental works, pure Hydrogen (H2) gas used as a primary fuel and Oxugen (O2) gas used as a oxidant. The single PEM fuel cell experimental studies were carried out to find out the effect of operating parameters such as cell temperature, anode and cathode gas humidification temperatures, and nanocatalyst loading on the PEM fuel cell performance. The Data was gathered from direct fuel cell readings and from the polarization (V-I) curves. This information was then analyzed using the statistical Design of Experiments (DoE) technique to find out the effect of changing parameters on the output performance of the PEM fuel cell. The purpose of these experiments is essentially optimization or finding the right set of parameters that maximize PEM fuel cell output performance, i.e., power. To achieve optimization, various effects plots, factorial plots, contour and surface plots were drawn to understand the effects of operating parameters and interactions on the fuel cell output. An optimization plot was also drawn to find the best optimum parameters that would maximize the output power.