Effects of gas starvation on performance of a single PEMFC

Gas starvation affects the performance and life of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell to a certain extent, and the phenomenon of single cell reverse polarity is a threat to the personal safety of researchers in severe cases. In this paper, the single cell of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell is studied. We consider hydrogen starvation and oxygen starvation respectively, and study the effects of various starvation levels on the polarization curve and power density of a Single PEMFC. The results show that the oxygen starvation has a significant effect on the performance of a Single PEMFC. When the air stoichiometry is small, with the output current increasing, the polarization curve is decreasing rapidly and the power density becomes small, meanwhile the performance of the single cell decays. The effect of hydrogen starvation plays a decisive role in behavior of a Single PEMFC. When the hydrogen starvation is less, it can improve the output performance of the cell to some extent, especially in the case of large current. When severe hydrogen starvation occurs, the performance of a Single PEMFC can not be recovered due to the increase in concentration losses.