Recent advances and summarization of fault diagnosis techniques for proton exchange membrane fuel cell systems: A critical overview

With soaring growth in the utilization of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) systems on various applications, researches on fault diagnosis techniques of PEMFC systems have gained widespread attention in the last few decades. Inspired by the ever-increasing demand for a reliable fault diagnosis, numerous diagnosis techniques have been proposed which aim to enhance system reliability and durability. Hence, this paper attempts to carry out an in-depth and comprehensive overview of various typical faults and state-of-the-art diagnosis methods of PEMFC systems, which are classified into five main categories, i.e., analytical model based, black-box model based, data driven based, statistical, and experiments testing. Furthermore, based on a thorough investigation of over 140 literatures, this paper not only systematically reviews various existing fault diagnosis approaches but further summarizes their performances with focus on their basic characteristics, such as main merits and drawbacks, practical applications, future developments, etc. Besides, an overall summary together with thirteen other advanced techniques is provided for a more comprehensive analysis with enriched strategies diversity. At last, six recommendations and perspectives for future researches are presented. In general, this paper is envisioned to offer insightful guidance to prompt related researchers/engineers to broaden the width of their researches. •Four typical fault types with sub-classifications are summarized.•Various fault diagnosis methods in five categories are thoroughly discussed.•A comprehensive table summarizes and compares all diagnosis approaches.•Thirteen other fault diagnosis techniques are systematically covered.•Several constructive recommendations are given for future development.