Development of a pure oxygen fuel cell system for an autonomous underwater vehicle with focus on fuel starvation due to inert gas accumulation on the anode

In this paper a LT-PEM fuel cell stack is used in an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) as a range-extender to increase its mission duration by continuously supplying the AUV with electricity. A battery buffers the difference between generated power from the fuel cell and consumed power of the AUV motor and payload. For fuel cell operation in an AUV different challenges arise linked to the surrounding sea water. These conditions lead to the design of a closed fuel cell system which will be outlined. Additionally measurements concerning a purge free dead-ended anode operation of the fuel cell stack will be presented.