Effect of Load Cycling on the Performance of Fuel Cell Stacks

The durability and the reliability of fuel cells are key points to continue to promote hydrogen energy as an efficient solution to face the global warming and the dependency to fossil fuels. Some long duration tests are needed to evaluate the performance losses of the fuel cell. This paper deals with the study of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell degradation due to different load cycling profiles. Based on a reference cycle, two other profiles are designed, by increasing the frequency and the magnitude of the load cycling. The impact of these two stressor factors, on short fuel cell stacks, is given as results.