Search Results

Hydrogen PEM fuel cells offer a viable way of providing the electrical energy to power a vehicle. With rapid refueling and acceptable range on a tank of fuel, they provide a complementary technology to battery-powered EVs that will ultimately offer a route to decarbonising transport. However, the demands on an automotive fuel cell stack provide a challenging environment for key components within the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). Frequent start-up shut-down events and freeze starts can create conditions that cause corrosion within the fuel cell. The risk of fuel starvation to individual cells within a large stack of several hundred cells is also a potential cause of corrosion which will inevitably lead to degradation and reduced stack lifetime. While there are system-level mitigation strategies that can be employed in terms of design, controls and interventions, the most efficient solution is to improve the intrinsic stability of the key cell components themselves.