Online degradation analysis of running PEFC's

This paper presents a novel diagnostic method to reliability and quickly analyze the state-of-health of running fuel cell systems. From systems related data, being measured during fuel cell operation by default, several degradation parameters can be identified. They characterize the degradation progress of different components within the fuel cell. An exemplary analysis of a data set logget during a 2100 hour lifetime test of a NuCellSys HY-80 fuel cell system demonstrates the good applicability of the method. The observation of the characteristic runs of the different parameters permits a detailed analysis of ongoing aging processes. Paramount degradation phenomena are identified for the membrane.