PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF AIR-COOLED PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE FUEL CELL AT HIGH ALTITUDE ENVIRONMENT

Qin Jiang; Liu Haidong; Shen Yiling; Xie Jiale; Shi Qiangqiang; Liu Hongbo

doi:10.19912/j.0254-0096.tynxb.2023-1373

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Acta Energiae Solaris Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (1) : 345-352. DOI: 10.19912/j.0254-0096.tynxb.2023-1373

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF AIR-COOLED PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE FUEL CELL AT HIGH ALTITUDE ENVIRONMENT

Shi Qiangqiang¹, Liu Hongbo¹, Qin Jiang², Liu Haidong², Shen Yiling², Xie Jiale³

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Abstract

Low temperature and oxygen content tend to cause difficulties for the unmanned aerial vehicle （UAV） powered by proton exchange membrane fuel cell （PEMFC） during the start-up and cruise stages at high altitude. In order to study the impact of environmental variable on the PEMFC performance at various altitudes, the system was tested and analyzed at 200 m, 3000 m and 4000 m respectively. The results showed that the power output of the PEMFC system decreases continuously as the altitude rises. The maximum current density reduced from 0.38 A/cm² to 0.33 A/cm² once intake preheating was used at cathode side at 3000 m altitude due to the lower humidity. Nevertheless, the maximum current density of the stack increased from 0.32 A/cm² to 0.36 A/cm² after intake air preheating at night of 4000 m with higher environment humidity. At the same time, the relatively precise model was developed to predict and estimate the PEMFC output performance on UAV under various altitudes based on the system simulation method with the maximum error below 5%, which was useful to accurately evaluate the cell performance.

Key words

proton exchange membrane fuel cell / current density / water content / oxygen content / performance evaluation

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Shi Qiangqiang, Liu Hongbo, Qin Jiang, Liu Haidong, Shen Yiling, Xie Jiale. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF AIR-COOLED PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE FUEL CELL AT HIGH ALTITUDE ENVIRONMENT[J]. Acta Energiae Solaris Sinica. 2025, 46(1): 345-352 https://doi.org/10.19912/j.0254-0096.tynxb.2023-1373

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