Modeling and Experimental Study of PEM Fuel Cell Transient Response for Automotive Applications

This paper presents an analysis of the dynamic response of a low pressure proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack to step changes in load, which are characteristic of automotive fuel cell system applications. The goal is a better understanding of the electrical and electrochemical processes when accounting for the characteristic cell voltage response during transients. The analysis and experiment are based on a low pressure 5 kW proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack, which is similar to those used in several of Tsinghua’s fuel cell buses. The experimental results provide an effective improvement reference for the power train control scheme of the fuel cell buses in Olympic demonstration in Beijing 2008.