Assignment 1: Laboratory Activity (12 Aug.

2019)

• Due date: 22 Aug (submissions after due date are subject to late submission penalty).
• This assignment forms 20% of your total mark in the course.
• Please submit electronically ALL IN ONE FILE ONLY through the Canvas (please DO NOT email your report).
• Please use a scanner if needed rather than using phone camera (if camera is used, please use an app to cut the
margins and make sure the picture is clear enough to read and has high quality)
• Please do not attached a spreadsheet
• Please include your name and student number both in the first page of your report and the file name of your
report.

Please note that all submissions are checked through TurnitIn against plagiarism. The software will compare your
submissions with all current and earlier submissions from the past few years till now (for this course) and all other
materials available online. Hence, please make sure that you provide citation and proper referencing if you use any
external materials (still to be reworded) to support your report. Use Harvard referencing style for this purpose.

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Requirements and Assessment Criteria

1- Electrolyser and fuel cell experiments must be prepared all in one document (DO NOT SUBMIT IN SEPARATE
FILES) by including the following items in your report for each of these experiments:
• A brief introduction to the experiment (Must be relevant to the experiment and not too general or
about other aspects of fuel cells and electrolysers).
• Aims
• Design of experiment
• Apparatus
• Method and procedure
• Calculations and results
• Discussion
• Conclusion

Note 1: You may use this lab handout to prepare some of the above-mentioned sections of your report;
however, you are required to use your own words to write the report. In case any part is copied directly from
the handout, No mark can be given for that part.
Note 2: Electrolyser and fuel cell experiments should be treated as individual sections (i.e. do not combine
sections such as introduction and conclusion and have one of each section for fuel cell and electrolyser
experiments (e.g. one introduction for fuel cell and one introduction for electrolyser).
Note 2: Provide sample calculations including the formulas and all the steps and values for one data point
and for each experiment (i.e. electrolyser, fuel cell part I and fuel cell part II)
Note 3: You are expected to include in your report (maybe in conclusion part) any performance-related
observations that can be directly or indirectly linked to the parameters investigated in this lab activity.

2- Please provide your report all in one file (not two separate files for each activity); however, make sure that
you present your report in two different sections for each activity.

3- Provide sample calculations for each part. DO NOT refer to any additional attachments such as an excel sheet
for this purpose.

Part I: Electrolyser Experiment (Total Mark 8)

Report structure and Relevant materials Calculation and Comprehensive result analysis and Conclusion
professionalism results discussion (consider the questions at the
demonstration end of this part)
The report structure The content under each The results must The results should be fully investigated with A summary of this
is required to be heading are required to be presented in regard to all the theories discussed during laboratory activity, its
arranged in a be relevant (e.g. the form of tables the lectures and the objectives of this objectives, results, and
professional format introductory and graphs. experiment (e.g. looking into electrolyser discussions must be
(see No. 1) background of your Sample performance characteristics, energy provided in this part.
report should contain calculations are efficiency, etc.) The possible sources of
materials relevant to required. error need to be
the theories being discussed as well.
investigated).

Part II: Fuel cell Experiment (Total Mark 12)

Report structure and Relevant materials Calculation and Comprehensive result analysis and Conclusion
professionalism results discussion (consider the questions at the
demonstration end of this part)
The report structure The content under each The results must The results should be fully investigated with A summary of this
is required to be heading are required to be presented in regard to all the theories discussed during laboratory activity, its
arranged in a be relevant (e.g. the form of tables the lectures and the objectives of this objectives, results, and
professional format introductory and graphs. experiment (e.g. looking into hydrogen fuel discussions must be
(see No. 1) background of your Sample cell performance characteristics, energy provided in this part.
report should contain calculations are efficiency and utilisation factor, different The possible sources of
materials relevant to required. types of overpotentials, hydrogen error need to be
the theories being consumption pattern, heat generation OCV, discussed as well.
investigated). etc.)

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Experimental activity 1: PEM Electrolyser Faraday efficiency and
energy efficiency
Objectives
1. Find the H2 production rate of the electrolyser in kg/sec.
2. Find the Faraday efficiency and energy efficiency of the electrolyser.
3. Discuss the questions posed at the end of this section.

Required equipment
1. Distilled water
2. Spotlight/halogen light
3. Fan
4. Experimental kit
5. Two multimeters
6. Connecting cables

Procedure

1. Keep the experimental setup same as figure 3.

2. Record the membrane area of the electrolyser as 4 cm2.
3. Place the floodlight 30 cm (or as instructed during the experiment) away from the solar cell
and set the fan in a way to cool down the solar cell surface and turn it on.
4. Close the circuit and let the electrolyser run till the voltage and current stabilise reasonably.
5. Purge the gas by opening the cap of the outlets of the fuel cell and stop purging before or as
soon as the hydrogen level reaches to zero.
6. Record the time (in seconds) for each 5ml of hydrogen generated until 30ml of hydrogen is
generated.
7. For each interval, record the voltage and current and take note of any changes in their
values (if in each interval the change was significant use the average value)
8. Later you need to calculate the faraday and energy efficiency (based on the formulas in the
handout) by using these values.
9. Take note of the room temperature (for estimation of hydrogen density either using ideal
gas formula or using a reference for hydrogen density at this specific temperature)
10. Calculate the theoretical mass of H2 production from the electrolyser stacks.
η Farady η Energy
11. Calculate Faraday efficiency ( ) and energy efficiency ( ) of the PEM electrolyser
stack.

Figure 1: Electrolyser experimental setup

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 Hydrogen produced H2 produced
Time Voltage Current η Energy η Faraday
Initial Final Difference
(sec) cm3 kg (Volt) (Amp)
(cm3) (cm3) (cm3)

m H 2 (exp ) ×HHV
η Energy =
V × I ×t

mH 2 (exp)
η Faraday =
mH 2 (th )

Notation as in experiment 1, and mH2(exp) is the mass of hydrogen produced as measured in the
experiment, and mH2(th) is the theoretical mass of hydrogen that would be produced by this current
flowing for this time if there were no losses.

Consider the following questions for discussion in your report (for electrolyser part):

1- What are the expected value for Faraday (fuel utilisation) and energy efficiencies for a PEm
electrolyser? If we consider a complete system (i.e. considering also other components and
ancillaries to operate the electrolyser, such as water pump, control system, cooling water
pump, compressor, etc.), do you expect each of these efficiencies improve or decrease and
why?
2- Do the energy and Faraday efficiencies you calculated for this electrolyser make sense or
they are unusually low or high? Please discuss the possible reasons.
3- Discuss the challenges you faced with running the electrolyser in the little solar-hydrogen
system demonstration? How do you think these challenges are addressed in commercial
PEM electrolysers? ( This challenges are related to operating an electrolyser and not
measurements and errors)
4- Discuss possible sources errors in this experiment (be specific and avoid general answers)

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Experimental activity 2: Characterisation of a Proton Exchange Membrane
(PEM) fuel cell stack

Objectives
1. To plot the voltage–current density characteristic (polarisation) curve of a PEM fuel cell.
2. To find the H2 consumption rate of the fuel cell in kg/sec.
3. To find fuel utilisation coefficient and energy efficiency of the fuel cell.
4. Compare and discuss all the above findings from both experiments described in the following
sections and provide your suggestions/comments on them.
5. Discuss the questioned posed in this handout (please see the end of this section)

Instruction
Run the experiment using both methods simultaneously
Setup 1
1. Distilled water
2. Spotlight/halogen light
3. PEM fuel cell experimental kit (Figure 2)
4. Decade resistor (Load)
5. Two multimeters
6. Connecting cables

Figure 2: PEM fuel cell experimental demonstration unit

Setup 2
1. Hydrogen supply (high-pressure supply line or metal hydride canister)
2. Fuel cell stack FC50 (10 cells in series)
3. External electronic load

Experimental setup–1
1) Before filling distilled water, check that the caps are fitted to the bottom connectors of the
fuel cell.
2) Fill both storage tanks with distilled water up to the lower mark of the compensation tank
as shown in Figure 3(A).
3) Open the caps on both sides of the fuel cell one after another. Air will escape from the gas
storage tanks, electrolyser and fuel cell. The process is complete when the water level in the
storage tanks stops falling as shown in Figure 3(B). After this, re-seal the bottom connectors
of the fuel cell.

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 4) Keep the spotlight at 30 to 50 cm from the solar panel. Set the spotlight in a way so that the
illumination is perpendicular to the solar panel.
5) Create the circuit as shown in the following circuit diagram as shown in Figure 3(D).

A B

C D
Figure 3: Fuel cell experimental setup-1

The following steps are to be taken to get voltage-current characteristic curve:

1) Connect the electrolyser to the Solar PV panel to produce hydrogen and oxygen if there is
not enough hydrogen and oxygen from previous experiment. When doing so, make sure
that the polarity is correct.
2) After you have produced at least 10 cm3 of hydrogen, open the fuel cell outlets and purge
the gases. Close the fuel cell outlets.
3) Record the room temperature (used for hydrogen density)
4) To prevent the fuel cell from using hydrogen before measurement is taken, keep the fuel
cell at open circuit (R=∞).
5) Start taking measurement from open circuit condition.
6) Gradually switch decade resistor from higher to lower resistances and record voltage, and
current values for each step.
7) Wait no more than 10 seconds in between individual measurements to get representative
results.
8) Make sure that current values do not fluctuate too much. The water accumulation can
affect the fuel cell output (both voltage and current).

The following steps are taken to calculate the fuel cell efficiency.

1) After obtaining the V-I curve, ensure you have enough hydrogen (if not, use the floodlight to
generate more hydrogen by the electrolyser).
2) Now, we need to calculate the energy efficiency of the fuel cell for a specific V and I by
measuring the time required for 2ml of hydrogen consumption.
3) Take note of the hydrogen level, set the resistance to a specific value (e.g. 33 Ω or 3.3 Ω),
start the timer and record the current and voltage values (use the average values if V and I
change significantly for each interval by taking average from the initial V and I and the final
V and I for each interval).
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 4) Record the time for 2ml of hydrogen consumption
5) Repeat this at least 3 times (i.e. at least 6ml of hydrogen consumption in total or more).
6) Calculate the efficiency for each step and also the overall efficiency (from the beginning to
the end to include all the steps; i.e. the average efficiency)

Hydrogen consumed H2 consumed

Time Voltage Current η Energy η Faraday
Initial Final Difference
(sec) 3 3 cm3 kg (Volt) (Amp)
(cm ) (cm ) (cm3)

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Experimental setup–2
1) Connect the AC power pack cable to the 12V DC power input on the FC50 Fuel Cell.
2) Connect the other end of the power pack to a source of AC power.
3) Use two short test leads to connect the FC50 with the external DC load by paying attention
to the polarity.
4) Prepare the electronic load (external) by turning it on and setting it to zero.
5) Attach the hydrogen supply quick-coupler to the FC50.

Figure 4: Fuel cell experimental setup-2

The following steps are to be taken to do this experiment:

1) Preparing the hydrogen supply unit: the hydrogen can be supplied either by using the high-
pressure line (used in this experiment) or using a metal hydride (MH) canister.
Note:
The energy content of 1g of hydrogen is roughly about 40 Wh
Every standard cubic meter (scm) of hydrogen is equivalent to about 90 g of hydrogen (in
this experiment the hydrogen flow rate is measured by a flow meter that provides the
measurements in standard conditions)
2) Fuel cell and electronic load start up and data acquisition
• Connecting the electronic load: In this experiment an external electronic load is used. It
should be set to zero. Then turn ON the toggle switch on the front panel.
• Open the valve of the hydrogen supply (either high-pressure hydrogen storage or MH
canister)
• Ensure the fan control knob is at AUTO. Set the main switch to ON and press the START
button. After completing a system test, the green OPERATION light comes on and the FC50
is ready for use. If an error occurs, the error code will appear in the H2 Flow display.
• Let the fuel cell be operated at low load (about 1 -2 A) for a few minutes (5-10 minutes) and
gradually increase the load up to warm up the fuel cell to its ideal operating temperature
(40-45°C)
Important note:
Never go for high currents (close to the maximum power point) right after starting up
the fuel cell if the stack has not been used for a while. Running the cell at low currents

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 allows the fuel cell to absorb some water and becomes wet, just prepared to handle
larger loads.
• After the temperature reaches 40°C, set the load potentiometer back to zero and again
make sure that the fan control knob is set on AUTO.

3) Data acquisition
Using the electronic load, set in turn each load current listed in the following table. After
waiting at least 15 seconds (or when voltage and current are stable) at each point, record the
measured values of stack current, Jstack, stack voltage, Vstack, and hydrogen flow rate in the table.
When measuring the first point (no-load operation) turn the electronic load OFF to ensure that
there is no load on the fuel cell.

Note:
The chemical energy content of 1 g of hydrogen is roughly about 40 Wh
Every standard cubic meter (scm) of hydrogen is equivalent to about 90 g of hydrogen

4 Calculations
Using the measured values and formulae provided in the week 1 presentation:

4.1 Calculate stack power (W) and actual hydrogen consumption rate in g/s.
4.2 Plot voltage–current, and power–current, hydrogen consumption rate-current curves (plot
both theoretical and experimental curves where applicable)
4.3 Calculate the theoretical hydrogen consumption rates at each current.
4.4 Calculate energy efficiency ( η Energy ) and fuel utilisation coefficient (µf) (see earlier
presentation for definition) of the fuel cell stack.
4.5 Discuss and calculate the heat generation rate of the fuel cell at 10 W operating point or the
closest recorded point to 10W.

V ×I
η Energy =
m& H 2 (exp ) ×HHV

where m& H 2 (exp) is the mass flow rate of experimental consumption of H2 in kg/s; HHV is the
higher heating value of H2 (141.9 MJ/kg), and V and I are voltage current in Volt and Amp
respectively.

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 Table of measurements and calculations
* Standard conditions as used by this flow meter are hydrogen gas at 0 °C and 1.01325 bar
Measured Values Calculated Values
Hydrogen Energy
No Hydrogen Flow Current Power efficiency Fuel utilisation
Voltage (V) flow
( η Energy )
rate (sccm) (A) (W) coefficient (µf)
(kg/s)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40

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5 Discussion section
Consider the following questions for discussion in your report (for fuel cell part) and please answer
them in the discussion section (please feel free to add any other points that you learned or
observed and you think it should be discussed)

1- Do the performance curves of the stacks (both setups 1 and 2) follow an expected standard
behaviour? Discuss their polarisation curve in more details (i.e. identify different losses on
their polarisation curves).
2- Do the open circuit voltages of the cells (both setups) make sense or they are unusually low
or high? What are the possible reasons if the obtained values are higher or lower than the
expected values?
3- What are the expected values for Faraday (fuel utilisation) and energy efficiencies of a fuel
cell stack? If we consider a fuel cell system (i.e. considering also other components and
ancillaries to operate the fuel cell such as blowers or fans, control system, cooling water
pump, etc.), do you expect each of these efficiencies improve or decrease and why?
4- Do the Faraday and energy efficiencies you calculated (discuss for both setups) make sense
or they are unusually low or high compared to those expected? What are the possible
reasons, if they are higher or lower than the expected values?
5- Calculate and discuss the total heat generation rate in setup 2 (e.g. at 10 W or the closest
recorded operating point to 10W as mentioned in 4.5.). You can use the formula provided in
the lecture slides to calculate the heat generation rate.
6- How do you think the air supply rate and operating temperature work together to
determine the hydration level of the membrane and consequently its performance? Discuss
how each of them can affect the membrane hydration and also in conjunction together
(setup 2). Please visit the lecture 2 slides.
7- Discuss the challenges you faced with running the fuel cell in the little solar-hydrogen
system demonstration? How do you think these challenges are addressed in commercial
fuel cells? (be careful that challenges are different from the errors and measurements and it
should be related to operating a fuel cell)
8- Discuss possible errors in these experiments. Be specific and mention at least four main
sources of error: two for the first setup and two for the second setup. These errors should
be based on your observations during the experiment and specific to these setup and
experiments. For example, any assumption made for simplification or lack of data can be a
source of error, or the equipment used and the way the values are measured; so, identify
them and discuss whether we can reduce these errors or not.

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