Experimental analysis of stationary power generation by PEMFC

The present work has been conducted focusing on electric generation for stationary applications. The general aim is to understand how a PEMFC-based system works along a prescribed time and how it responds to load variations. An experimental setup has been built. Many issues have been of interest for this experimental research. Effectiveness is the core of this study because its trend as a function of time represents the question to be accomplished in order to summarize the real behavior of these systems. Moreover, from the electric point of view, current intensity and voltage basically represent the characteristic parameters, while produced energy, power and fuel consumption are subjects to be investigated from the energetic and thermodynamic side. The experimental campaign has been carried out following four main directions. Long-time tests have been conducted at a constant load; step-by-step tests have been conducted at both increasing and decreasing load and finally tests have been run at completely random load. As far as the minimum and the maximum power given by the device were a priori known, the tests have been conducted in order to simulate a load-based cycle as realistic as possible. Therefore the dynamic behavior of the system has been investigated with a strong focus on stack and net effectiveness.