External humidification for fuel and oxidant gases of PEMFC makes the system complicated

it is of practical interest to operate PEMFCs through self-humidification. The key to improve PEMFC performance of self-humidification operation is to maintain the polymer electrolyte membrane adequately hydrated. Thus

self-humidifying membrane electrode assembly (MEA) is an effective way. In this paper

a mathematical model of water transport balance was developed to predict water content distribution in proton exchange membrane

and further study the feasibility and stability of self-humidification operation. Numerical analysis illustrated that the membrane was thin enough to satisfy the demand of hydration. In order to maintain the membrane hydrated well and achieve good performance of PEMFC

cell temperature and operating pressure were set 60℃ and 0.15 MPa

air stoichiometry was increased to 1.8. Based on these conditions

the performance of PEMFC showed a little difference between self-humidification and full-humidification. But there was a large gap compared to optimized full-humidification. It was applicable for self-humidificaiton to simplify the structure and reduce the cost

mass and complexities of PEMFC. But full humidification cannot be replaced completely.