Publications Repository - Gdańsk University of Technology

This paper presents an innovative, electrochemical impedance method for monitoring of electrochemical behaviour of a multi-cell, direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) device. This method not only provides classical voltage changes at successive cells but also allows their detailed impedance behaviour to be presented. Impedance characteristics of individual cells within a fuel cell stack (depending on actual operating conditions) are obtained via numerous electrochemical tasks, including simultaneous determination of each cell’s impedances, performance optimization of the fuel cell stack and effective detection of faulty cells within the stack. The above concerns in situ conditions. The effectiveness of the present method was studied here on a seven-cell, commercially made DMFC stack. In order to effectively detect faulty cells, selected experiments were carried out with insufficient amount of oxygen supplied to a cathode input (ca. 25 % of optimal oxidant dose was used).

Authors

• dr hab. inż. Paweł Ślepski link open in new tab ,
• dr inż. Ewa Janicka link open in new tab ,
• prof. dr hab. inż. Kazimierz Darowicki link open in new tab ,
• Bogusław Pierożyński link open in new tab