Impact of power converter current ripple on the durability of a fuel cell stack

The durability and performance of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) have a major impact on the most important challenges facing fuel cell commercialization including final cost, mass production, system integration, functionality and reliability. This work is supported by French Government via an ANR' project (PAN'H) named SPACT80. The global objective is to develop and validate the use of a fuel cell based power system for heavy-duty vehicles (dedicated to railway applications or hybrid electrical trucks). In the framework of this program, this paper focuses on the influence of the DC/DC power converter high frequency current ripples on Fuel Cell (FC) stack durability. A comparison between the results of two ageing tests performed during 1000 hours on two PEM fuel cell stacks with five single cells is here achieved. The reference experiment has been obtained on a first 600 W stack operating in stationary regime at roughly nominal conditions during 1000 hours. The second experiment is done on another 600 W stack operated in dynamic current testing conditions. During both experiments, measurements were performed at regular time-spaced intervals. Three different characterizations are illustrated in this article; polarization curve test, historic curves and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) measurements.