Polymer Exchange Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cell: A Review

Abstract

The review paper includes introduction, working principle of the PEM fuel cell and Description of water management problem in PEM fuel cell. The discussions are based on elimination of water management problem by proper design of fuel cell. The paper shows the various types of efficiency, polarization characteristics and power characteristics. It also describes the various parameters (pressure, temperature, stoichiometry ratio and humidity) which affect the performance of fuel cell, its optimum range in which fuel cell operate safely and efficiently. This paper represents the recent work done for improvement of the performance of PEM fuel cell. Fuel cell performance is increased by proper water management on the membrane. Basic parameter which enhances the fuel cell performance is Relative humidity, Flow field design, Temperature, stoichiometric ratio. With the help of this studies, we observe that the fuel cell performance improve by Increasing the relative humidity, temperature, pressure , stoichiometric ratio and using the split serpentine flow field instead of single serpentine flow field. The objective of this study is to explore the research in the field of PEM fuel cell and to make it cost effective for sustainable power supply.