Decay Analysis of a 5kW PEMFC Stack in Sightseeing Bus

This paper deals with the decay of hydrogen-air proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack, which has been used for three years, installing a 5kW fuel cell stack in a sightseeing bus to do the experiment, including road test and bench test. The results indicate that the hydrogen-air fuel cell stack power performance declines a lot, whose power conspicuously drops from 5kW to nearly 2.5kW, compared with that of a new one. There are many reasons of its decline, such as, proton membrane penetration and electrode destruction etc. It proves that the stack needs reasonable care and maintenance; otherwise, it tends to be easily exhaustive and thus greatly increases costs.