Research on the operation of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell

Abstract

It is currently noted that there is an increasing concern of growing power demand and the global environment issues. As the prices of natural fuels continue to increase, alternative energy conversion devices that are energy sufficient and sustainable are being sorted.

Fuel cells have the capacity of replacing conventional energy storing devices such as batteries. Similar to batteries, the fuel is able to convert chemical energies directly into electrical energy. But unlike the batteries, the fuel cells are open systems; this means that the fuel cell are able to continuously produce electrical power as long as the reactance are supplied, whereas in the case of the batteries, the amount of electrical energy produced is dependent on the amount of reactant that is originally stored in the device.

There are several types of fuel cells and they can be categorized according to the type of ion conductor used in the device. The fuel cell that are commonly being studied today are the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and the direct alcohol fuel cell (DAFC).

This project aims to investigate the characteristic of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell which include the researching of thesis already made and to simulate model made by this thesis.