The Relative Humidity Effect Of The Reactants Flows Into The Cell To Increase PEM Fuel Cell Performance

Abstract

Design of the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell system is still developed and improved to achieve performance and efficiency optimal. Improvement of PEM fuel cell performance can be achieved by knowing the effect of system parameters based on thermodynamics on voltage and current density. Many parameters affect the performance of PEM fuel cell, one of which is the relative humidity of the reactants that flow in on the anode and cathode sides. The results of this study show that the increase in relative humidity value on the cathode side (RHC) causes a significant increase in current density value when compared to the increase of relative humidity value on the anode side (RHA). The performance of single cells with high values is found in RHC is from 70% to 90%. The maximum current density generated at RHA is 70% and RHC is 90% with PEM operating temperature of 363 K and pressure of 1 atm