MEMBRANE FUEL-CELLS - CONCEPTS AND SYSTEM-DESIGN

The low power range can be an interesting application market for the P EM fuel cell in the near future. With a possible function as battery i n portable devices the banded structure PEM fuel cell will be an advan tageous alternative to the conventional stack. The new system provides high output voltages, a flat cell geometry and can be optimized with respect to smaller cell volumes. The article describes the principle f unction of such a system and the necessary parameter for optimizing th e cell geometry. A comparison with a conventional stack design is give n and experimental results with an eight cell banded structure stack a re presented. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.