Open Source Hardware For Pem Fuel Cells Control

Among a number of alternative energy sources, hydrogen is treated as one of the most promising candidates, due to the reason that it can be applied to a fuel cell as an input to provide electricity through an electrochemical reaction. On top of that, high conversion efficiency up to 40 to 60% is seen in a fuel cell. The first application of a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell was as an auxiliary power source in the NASA Gemini space flights, in the 1960s. Afterwards, technological advances were very insignificant until the late 1980s, when appeared new design reconfiguration and new fabrication methods. The most significant goal that PEM fuel cell had to overcome was the costly amount of platinum required as a catalyst. The large amount of platinum in the original PEM fuel cell is one of the reasons why fuel cells were excluded from commercialization. Thus, the reconfiguration of the PEM fuel cell was targeted rather directly on the electrodes employed and, more specifically, in reducing the amount of platinum in the electrodes [1,2]. This continues to be a driving force for further research on PEM fuel cell. The power density of a fuel cell has been elevated largely, as a consequence of technology improvement and progress made in material science. Fuel cells have been turned into a competitive product in the market to a great extent owing to successful cost reduction activities on electrode catalysts and other key components [3]. Nowadays, new tools based on collaborative working, open research and open knowledge seem to represent an excellent opportunity to push the PEM fuel cell technologies, improving the research activity in the fuel cell area [4-6].