An Evaluation of Cooling Systems for PEMFCs in Transport Applications

Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells in transportation applications require specific cooling systems. Inside the cell itself, the temperature must remain relatively constant to avoid problems of condensation or dry out that would adversely affect its efficiency. The cooling system must also deal with several challenges unique to fuel cells: it must not conduct electricity across the cells, and it must withstand freezing and cold start-up. Moreover, the cooling system must be compact and light to keep the energy density of the stack as high as possible. Unlike the conventional internal combustion engine in today’s cars, the fuel cell engine works at a low temperature. This means that the entire automobile cooling system must be redesigned to dissipate this low quality heat. To better compare various cooling systems, we have done a patent search of current system designs.