PEM fuel cell conditioning for subzero storage and cold start using electrocatalytic heating

In a number of proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell applications, the storage and subsequent start-up under subzero temperatures is required. If water (the product of an electrochemical reaction) is frozen in the bipolar plate channels, gas diffusion electrodes, and membrane-electrode assemblies in a switched-off fuel cell at subzero temperatures, their destruction may occur as a result of an increase in the volume occupied by water when it is converted to ice by, ca., 9%. The original methods of PEM fuel cell conditioning before storage and subsequent start-up at subzero temperatures are suggested in this communication. In particular, the electrocatalytic self-heating of PEM fuel cells in the maximum power mode is proposed to increase its temperature up to 100-130 °C, which makes it possible to transfer water from a liquid to a gaseous phase, and effectively remove it by purging the internal cavities of the fuel cell with reagent gases (hydrogen, oxygen, or air). Corresponding strategies developed by the author and the engineering solutions realized in the experimental set-up are reported and discussed. It is shown that the suggested approaches for PEM fuel cell conditioning before it is shut down allows one to work out the issues of the storage, transportation, and cold start of PEM fuel cells at deeply negative temperatures. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of RF under the project FSWF-2023-0014.