Cold-start method for proton-exchange membrane fuel cells based on locally heating the cathode

Abstract The key to successfully cold starting proton-exchange membrane fuel cells is increasing the cell temperature above 0 °C before the electrochemical reaction stops, because ice forms in fuel cells below this temperature. To decrease the input of external heat energy to fuel cells during cold starting, this paper proposes a local-heating method to improve the cold-start performance of fuel cells. During the experiments, heating wires were placed under partial ridges in the cathode plate to improve the cold-start performance of the fuel cells. The cold-start characteristics of the locally heated fuel cells were analyzed by measuring the voltage, high-frequency impedance, and cathode (gas diffusion layer) temperature for different heating power densities and number of heating wires. The results show that locally heating the cathode improves the cold-start capability of the fuel cell, and increasing the heating power density to heat the fuel cell enhances the voltage stability during cold starting of the cell. Furthermore, at a constant heating power density, the fuel cell using one heating wire shows better cold-start performance than that heated using three heating wires.