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Date Report Submitted: March 26, 2013

To: Dr. H. Trajano
From: Bruce Chen (76312099), Group No: 8
Re: CHBE 366 Experiment CFuel Cell

Objectives: To become familiar with the fundamentals of fuel cell operations and determine the best
operating conditions and use the data collected to produce its characteristic curves.

Equipment and Procedures: The apparatus consists of a fuel cell (Fuel Cell Module FC50), which
controls hydrogen and air flows rates, an Electronic Load Module EL200, which converts electrical
energy to heat, and a Voltage Converter Module VC100. Five trials were conducted, each at varying
operating conditions with fan speed and cell temperature being the chief variables. The first trial started
off at 40

C and on auto fan speed; subsequent were adjusted in fan speed to 6, 30, and 60%. The final
trial was conducted at 25

C and 6% operating fan speed. A total of 20 data points were taken from the
apparatus for each trial. The current would start at 0.0 A and data was recorded for every 0.5 A increase.
The data that was recored were stack voltage and current, hydrogen consumption flow rates, power, and
temperature for each point in each trial.

Results: The characteristic curves for voltage, power, and hydrogen consumption for each trial are drawn
fairly close together, showing little disparity between each fan speed and indicating its negligible effect
on the relationships between current and voltage, current and power, and current and hydrogen
consumption. Some of the curves terminate at a certain point, such as Trial 2 in the voltage vs. current
graph. This curve cuts off on the x-axis at 6.00 A; this trial was operated at a higher temperature (40

C )
and a lower fan speed (6). The FC50 stops operating when the operating temperature exceeds over 50

C;
no data is collected after this point in order to prevent damage to the equipment. The temperature spiked
from 37.5 to exceeding 50

C instantaneously. Voltage and power vary differently as current increases

according to the characteristic curves; voltage decreases and power increases as current increases and they
predictably share an inverse relationship as predicted by Ohms law when both are compared to a fixed
resistance. Power seems to reach steady-state at around 9.00 A for all trials.

The Hydrogen consumption curves look much different; in each trial, the consumption flow rate increases
linearly as current increases and at a certain current, the hydrogen consumption spikes up to a
significantly higher flow rate and then as current increases the hydrogen consumption would oscillate
slightly at a steady-state. For all trials except for Trial 4 (Fan speed of 60, and a temperature of 40

C), the
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current at which the hydrogen consumption rate spikes occurs at a current of 5.00 A; trial 4s spike occurs
at 4.50 A. The linear nature of the graph prior to the curve hitting a current of 5.00 A indicates that the
current and the consumption rate are proportional to one another. The fuel cell is designed to supply
enough hydrogen to prevent damage to the equipment. The curve reaches steady state because at a high
current, the amount of air that can be supplied is limited. Fan speed appears to have negligible effects on
temperature change throughout the trial as well; each trials temperature change ranged from 1.1 to 1.5

C.

A linear plot of the inverse of current density is plotted against dU/di and the y-intercept yields the
internal resistance of 0.0009 ohm*m
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and this value affects the current efficiency. Because voltage is a
product of current and resistance, the voltage efficiency is also affected, and it follows that since stack
efficiency is the product of both, the internal resistance also affects it. In the efficiencies vs stack current
(A) graph, voltage, current and stack current efficiencies hit decreases in efficiency at around 1.00 A, 4.50
A and 5.05 A. The decrease for the voltage is the most linear of the three decreases and indicates that
voltage is the least correlated to the hydrogen flow rate and perhaps the best judge of consistent trends in
the performance of the fuel cell.

Conclusions and Error Analysis: It is ultimately determined that the voltage efficiency is the best
indicator of a good fuel cell, as it is not dependent on the erratic hydrogen consumption flow rate like
stack and current efficiencies. The unstable flow of hydrogen when the current exceeded 5.00 A that
caused unexpected trends in the readings. Throughout the experiment, all readings at individual points,
specifically hydrogen flow rate fluctuated wildly, quickly enough that the human eye could not possibly
make an accurate reading which may have affected the graphs slightly. The user interface for entering the
fan speed was also extremely user unfriendly, which lead to sometimes using the wrong fan speed due to
time constraints. In trial 2, no data could be collected beyond a current of 6.0 A because the temperature
exceeded 50

C very suddenly.

Recommendations: It would be worth running more trials of the experiment at lower starting
temperatures with similarly varying fan speeds; the one trial done at 25

C had consistent data despite the

fact that it operated with a fan speed of just 6, and did not overheat like in trial 2 with a temperature of
40

C.