A kW-level high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack and its cooling technique

The study presents a kW-level high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell and its cooling technique. The cooling method utilized internal cooling method to precisely control the temperature of stack. The temperature difference between the coldest and warmest measuring point is 7.3 K. In this study, we used two sealing methods for cooling mechanism in the HT-PEMFC stacks to demonstrate a simple and cheap sealing technique. The used sealing materials are specific silicone sealant and siliconelfluroeleastomer based O-ring. The coolant used in this study is triethylene glycol. The coolant flow rate is up to 60 LPM to stably raise the temperature of stack at 160°C within 600 seconds. The peak power density of the HT-PEMFC stack with proposed cooling/sealing technique can reach to 383mW/cm
²
. Finally, a cooling design with the simple and cheap sealing technique can realize the request of cost-efficiency issues and improve the applicability of the HT -PEMFC stack technology.