Signal-based diagnostic approach to enhance fuel cell durability

To face the dependency to fossil fuels and limit the carbon emissions, fuel cells are a very promising technology and appear to be a key candidate to face the increase of the energy demand and promote the energy transition and energy mix. To meet future needs for both automotive and stationary applications, fuel cells will require improved durability. In this paper, a new concept to enhance fuel cell performance and lifetime is provided, by introducing a disruptive and high-efficiency diagnostic approach based on signal processing. The results show that the failures on the fuel cell system can be detected and isolated efficiently thanks to fault indicators. The innovative concept proposed here, can guarantee improvements of the durability and of the reliability of the fuel cell system by detecting abnormal operating conditions rapidly and efficiently.