Experimental investigation on voltage response during mode switching from electrolysis cell to fuel cell when using gas purge

Abstract

A proton exchange membrane unitized regenerative fuel cell test platform is designed, to experimentally investigate the cell response under different operation conditions using gas purge during mode switching from electrolytic cell to fuel cell. Results indicate that: at non-humidified state, with the rise of non-insert gas flow rate, the fuel cell voltage firstly displays upward trend, reaches a maximum and then goes down. Nevertheless, the voltage in fuel cell mode under humidified state does not change significantly. The fuel cell voltage drops with purge time increasing. As the increase of current density of fuel cell startup, voltage drops at the end of fuel cell working. Under non-humidified state, the increase of fuel cell voltage is not obvious with the rise of electrolytic current density. While fuel cell voltage firstly increases and then goes down under humidified state. In addition, the voltage during mode switching using inert gas purge is also obtained.