Fabrication, Design, and Performance Investigation of Portable Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell and Control System

We constructed a controller for a 500 W proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The controller uses the Arduino Mega2560 control board for system construction and development. The controller can measure voltage, current, temperature, and power supply. The measurement data is stored in a computer via Bluetooth transmission technology. The system protection components are installed outside the control panel. The components are integrated using a printed circuit board (PCB) process. The self-built controller can avoid PEMFC overload and instantly transfer data to the user record. The PEMFC controller developed in this study can control the purge interval and duration of the valve according to the fuel cell stack under different load conditions, thus improving the stability and output performance of the fuel cell.