Investigating Performance of Hydrogen Fuel Cells in Different Charge Transfer Coefficients and its Effect on Maximum PowerPoint

Abstract

The charge transfer coefficient is a dimensionless coefficient used in the kinetics of chemical reactions. In this paper, the effect of the charge transfer coefficient on hydrogen fuel cell characteristics such as polarization curve and power diagram in terms of current density and losses is investigated. The charge transfer coefficient affects the activation losses of the fuel cell and therefore affects the performance of the fuel cell. For this investigation, a basic sample is selected and the changes of charge transfer coefficient are studied on its characteristics. The obtained results show that with an increase in this factor, the activation loss decreases. In addition, increasing the charge transfer coefficient increases the maximum power point. The increase in the power of this point is more visible in lower values of the charge transfer coefficient and when this coefficient exceeds the value of 0.5, this effect becomes very small. Also, the appropriate value of this coefficient is determined to maintain the balance of the chemical reaction. The activity of the fuel cell is disrupted due to an excess amount of the coefficient.

Keywords

• charge transfer coefficient
• hydrogen fuel cell
• maximum power point tracking
• renewable energy