Based on an innovative system components for the hydrogen supply of a fuel cell system developed in a joint project by our project partner Anleg GmbH, a commercially available fuel cell stack of Proton Motor was operated on the anode side in vacuum at ZBT for the first time. The aim of the overall project was the realization of a modular unit for supply of hydrogen in a sub ambient pressure to fuel cell stacks in the 2 kW class to obtain enhanced security in case of a potential hydrogen leakage.
The consortium including Anleg GmbH (Schermbeck) and the fuel cell research center ZBT (Duisburg) has developed the corresponding sub-components, their integration into a power supply module, the adaptation of a fuel cell system and ultimately the verification and demonstration of the suitability of the technical solution for the operation of fuel cell systems.
It was the responsibility of ZBT to investigate the effects of negative pressure operating on a fuel cell, then to include the gas supply components of Anleg GmbH into a fuel cell system and to analyse this system in terms of security, stability and practicability. The entire system was successfully operated based on the newly developed anode supply components and an adapring control methodology by ZBT.
Overall, it can be stated that the long-term experiment was successfully carried out. The stack also shows very low degradation and is stable even with the negative pressure operation. A fast boot and a sufficient momentum guarantee a user-friendly operation.
