An automatic test system for the dynamic characterization of PEM fuel cells

The adoption of fuel cells for industrial applications, transportations and home power generation has widely increased in recent years. For both the monitoring and characterization of those systems, the implementation of a suitable test system is needed. In a fuel cell both chemical and electric sections can be founded, so to control its behavior the measurement of different parameters, as current, voltage, flow rate of the reactants and cell temperature is required. The performance evaluation of a fuel cell requires both static and dynamic characterization, especially for the automotive applications, in which there is a dynamic variation of electric load. In this paper we are mostly concerned with the implementation of an automatic test system for both static and dynamic characterization of PEM fuel cells. A complete testing procedure is proposed and the experimental results are shown.