Thermodynamic Analysis of the Performance of an Irreversible PEMFC
An irreversible model of proton exchange membrane fuel cells working at steady-state is established, in which the irreversibility resulting from overpotentials, internal currents and leakage currents are taken into account.In this paper, the irreversibility of fuel cell is expounded mainly from electrochemistry. The general performance characteristic curves are generated including output voltage, output power and output efficiency. In addition, the irreversibility of a class of PEMFC is studied by changing the operating conditions (controllable factors) of the fuel cell, including effect of operating temperature, operating pressure and leakage current. The results provide a theoretical basis for both the operation and optimal design of real PEM fuel cells.