A Study Regarding Effects of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Poisoning Due to Impurities on Fuel Cell Performance

In order to assess the effect of PEM-FC poisoning resulting from impurities on PEM-FC performance, this paper investigated contents as follows; · Estimation for composition and concentration of impurities contained within hydrogen fuel and air. · The prediction of poisoning extent and proposal of assessment index for impurity poisoning. · Allowable mixing concentration of impurities for the standard H₂ fuel. The analysis and experiment are conducted under 70 °C and 1 bar for operating temperature and pressure. PEM-FC with Pt and Pt-Ru type catalytic-electrode was used. It was observed that: · CO poisoning was reversible but H₂S and SO₂ poisonings were irreversible. It was also confirmed that sulfur compounds poisoning was very strong. On the contrary, poisoning of HCHO and CH₄ etc. was slight or negligible. · In case of cathode electrode, the effect of NO₂ and SO₂ poisoning on PEM-FC performance was severe when CO poisoning was negligible.