Water Management in Fuel Cell Stack by Using Microcontroller
Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is very good at producing energy without the emission of any harmful gases. In this work, emphasis has been given towards controlling the water accumulation inside the cell stack. The effective cooling of the fuel cell during operation can significantly improve the efficiency. Also, flooding and dehydration conditions are most common reasons for the efficiency reduction and performance degradation of the fuel cells. In the current work, the problem is addressed by controlling the number of cells in operation through a specifically designed microcontroller. The controller would switch the cells on/off when the need arises which can be diagnosed by thermocouple by virtue of cell temperature. Automatic switching with the microcontroller is performed without disturbing the stack operation. This could improve the cell performance with reduced flooding/dehydration of the stack. So the same stack life may be improved substantially.