Study, design, electro-chemical testing and validation of fuel cell fixture of single cell assembly towards custom stationary application.

Fuel cell - as name suggests, it generates energy from fuel (Hydrogen). A three-input system produces three different outputs: electrical energy, heat, and pure water. Fuel cell can produce decent power depending on design of active area and possible current density. Overall required power output which is generated by a series of cells stacked together. The design once meets all the required performance parameters at single cell level, can be extrapolated to stack level design. The present work elaborates successful testing and validation of a compact, light weigh single cell fuel cell fixture. Further the design will be scaled to a fuel cell stack design with a capacity of 5 kW to cater various stationary application such as back-up/ stand-alone power generator for remote location. The same design philosophy will also be implemented in fuel cell stack design for automobile applications. The membrane electrode assembly (MEA) is heart of the fuel cell which produces the output while assembled in the single cell fixture or in fuel cell stack. For achieving its desired performance, the basic design requirements from the single cell assembly are - to provide proper sealing for the fluids flowing in the system and to ensure proper contact pressure on the MEA for efficient charge transfer. To suit weight & volume constraints, a compact system and easy to manufacture, single cell fuel cell fixture has been designed for a 120 cm2 MEA. The variety of material has been selected and used to meet the design and functional requirements. The design was subjected to different simulation studies such as flow and pressure drop analysis, cell performance, etc. and was validated using different analytical methods & testing. The base polarization performance was validated post MEA activation under desired set of operating conditions.