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The consumption of hydrogen could increase by sixfold in 2050 compared to 2020 levels, reaching about 530 Mt. Against this backdrop, the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has been a major research area in the field of energy engineering. Several reviews have been provided in the existing corpus of literature on PEMFC, but questions related to their evolutionary nuances and research hotspots remain largely unanswered. To fill this gap, the current review uses bibliometric analysis to analyze PEMFC articles indexed in the Scopus database that were published between 2000–2021. It has been revealed that the research field is growing at an annual average growth rate of 19.35%, with publications from 2016 to 2012 alone making up 46% of the total articles available since 2000. As the two most energy-consuming economies in the world, the contributions made towards the progress of PEMFC research have largely been from China and the US. From the research trend found in this investigation, it is clear that the focus of the researchers in the field has largely been to improve the performance and efficiency of PEMFC and its components, which is evident from dominating keywords or phrases such as ‘oxygen reduction reaction’, ‘electrocatalysis’, ‘proton exchange membrane’, ‘gas diffusion layer’, ‘water management’, ‘polybenzimidazole’, ‘durability’, and ‘bipolar plate’. We anticipate that the provision of the research themes that have emerged in the PEMFC field in the last two decades from the scientific mapping technique will guide existing and prospective researchers in the field going forward.

The SWEL‐V electrolyzer employs a nonmetallic, permeable, and porous rock electrode that produces green hydrogen directly from seawater with no corrosion (M. Oraby and A. Shawqi, International Journal of Energy Research [2024] 2024:5576626; M. Oraby, United States Patent, Publication No. 2024/04100062 A1). This paper investigates the performance of a PEM fuel cell operating with hydrogen produced by the SWEL‐V electrolyzer with varying hydrogen flowrates. The fuel cell exhibited two distinct voltage plateaus where the locations and durations of these plateaus were strongly influenced by the hydrogen flowrates. An optimization function is developed to maximize and speed up the buildup of the fuel cell voltage through identifying the optimal hydrogen flowrate from the SWEL‐V electrolyzer. These findings provide valuable insights for optimizing an integrated system combining seawater electrolysis and fuel cell technology.

This research introduces a novel optimal control strategy for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) utilizing a DC/DC converter, aimed at enhancing performance and longevity. The core of this strategy is an Improved Coot Optimizer algorithm (ICOA), designed to optimize a PID controller for precise voltage regulation of the PEMFC stack. The ICOA incorporates self-adaptive and chaotic mechanisms to improve solution quality and prevent premature convergence. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed ICOA-optimized PID controller significantly reduces voltage ripples and overshoot, key factors in improving PEMFC lifetime. Specifically, compared to non-optimized performance with a 2.47% overshoot and 4.7 s settling time, the ICOA-optimized system exhibits superior dynamic response and stability. Comparative analyses against three other control techniques confirm a wide system enhancement, evidenced by a substantial reduction in both current and overshoot ripples. Algorithm verification using benchmark functions shows the ICOA achieves lower mean values and standard deviations, with p-values indicating statistically significant improvements ( p  < 0.05) in Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) compared to COA, MVO, EPO, and LOA algorithms, validating its enhanced optimization capabilities for PEMFC control.

To solve the control problem of the performance degradation of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), a novel control framework based on the performance degradation is proposed. This control framework introduces the results of the state of health (SoH) estimation and remaining useful lifetime (RUL) prediction, which were used for the controller design because they determine the PEMFC output power. Furthermore, the information of SoH and RUL could be reflected the PEMFC health state and provided maintenance recommendations. The desired power of the stack was obtained, which was used as the real-time desired power of the PEMFC system by synthesizing the RUL, SoH, and ECU information of the stack. The results showed that when the PEMFC system used the designed control framework, the RUL and SoH information could be provided. The stack temperature showed an increasing and then decreasing trend, which indicates that the stack temperature was still controllable by controlling the speeds of the pump and fan.

Research on the power prediction of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) has garnered considerable attention. Because mainstream computational-fluid-dynamics-based methods are time-consuming, this study aimed to design a data-driven method based on Ridge regression (Ridge) and convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithms that can efficiently predict PEMFC power under uncertain conditions in real-world scenarios and reduce the time consumption. The measured data from a PEMFC test bench (3 kW) were collected as the data source for the model. First, we adopted Ridge to eliminate abnormal samples. Second, we analyzed and selected the variables that have a significant effect on PEMFC power. Moreover, we optimized the model using batch normalization, dropout, Nadam, Swish, and Huber techniques. Finally, the performance of the model was evaluated by combining real datasets and real polarization curves. The experimental results demonstrate that the polarization curves predicted by the CNN-based model agree with the real curves, with a prediction accuracy of approximately 0.96, a prediction time of 1 μs, and an iteration period of less than 1 s per cycle. A comparative analysis shows that the CNN-based model prediction precision was superior to that of other mainstream machine learning algorithms. In real scenarios, the CNN-based model accurately predicts the power of PEMFC.

Efficient proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) operation demands optimization of both flow field geometry and operating parameters to balance mass transport and reaction kinetics. This study quantifies how the aspect ratio (AR) of rectangular flow obstacles interacts with temperature, pressure, and humidity to influence cell performance. A three-dimensional finite-volume CFD model of a full PEMFC, incorporating gas diffusion layers, catalyst layers, and flow channels, was used to solve the coupled transport of species, heat, and current. Rectangular obstacles with AR from 0 (no obstacle) to 1 were placed in the cathode and anode channels, and a design-of-experiments sensitivity analysis was performed over operating conditions: temperature 333–363 K, pressure 1–4 atm, and anode/cathode relative humidity 0–100%. The results reveal that mid-sized obstacles (AR ≈ 0.25–0.50) deliver the largest improvements in power density across all conditions, primarily by enhancing oxygen convection and reducing concentration overpotentials. In particular, AR≈0.25–0.50 configurations provided approximately 18–20% higher power output across a wide range of temperatures and humidity levels on anode and cathode sides, relative to the baseline (AR = 0) case. Peak performance occurred at about 2 atm: under these moderate pressures the obstructed channels achieved maximal power output. However, at 4 atm the trend reversed: diffusion limitations dominated and the obstacle-free design achieved the highest power density. Furthermore, the AR≈0.25 design promoted uniform water distribution and mitigated local flooding, yielding roughly 15–20% gains in performance across the humidity spectrum. These findings map the optimal operating regime and provide guidelines for tuning flow field obstacle geometry to maximize PEMFC performance under realistic conditions.

This study investigates the operational behavior and voltage stability of a 1 kW-class AIP PEMFC stack under high-pressure H2 and O2 conditions. AIP PEMFCs, unlike conventional air-based systems, operate in enclosed environments using stored O2, requiring designs that minimize parasitic power losses while ensuring stable operation. To establish a performance baseline, single cell tests were conducted to isolate the effects of in-plane components, including the MEA, GDL, and flow field geometry. Results indicated that temperature and pressure significantly influenced performance, whereas humidity and flow rate had minimal effects under the tested conditions. A 27-cell stack was then assembled and evaluated under various current densities, flow rates, and humidity levels. Time-resolved voltage measurements revealed that low flow rates (stoichiometry ≤ 1.5) led to voltage instability, particularly at high humidity and current density. Instability was more pronounced in cells positioned farthest from the inlet and outlet ports. These findings underscore the importance of optimizing operational parameters and stack architecture to achieve stable AIP PEMFC performance under reduced flow conditions. The results provide key insights for developing compact, efficient, and durable AIP fuel cell systems for use in enclosed or submerged environments such as submarines or unmanned underwater vehicles, while highlighting key challenges associated with AIP-targeted applications.

In order to improve the output performance of high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFC), a finite time thermodynamic (FTT) model for HT-PEMFC was established. Several finite time thermodynamic indexes including power density, thermodynamic efficiency, exergy efficiency, exergetic performance efficient (EPC), entropy production rate and ecological coefficient of performance (ECOP) were derived. The energetic performance, exergetic performance and ecological performance of the HT-PEMFC were analyzed under different parameters. Results showed that operating temperature, doping level and thickness of membrane had a significant effect on the performance of HT-PEMFC and the power density increased by 58%, 31.1% and 44.9%, respectively. When the doping level reached 8, the output performance of HT-PEMFC wa optimal. The operating pressure and relative humidity had little influence on the HT-PEMFC and the power density increased by 8.7%% and 17.6%, respectively.

The optimization of flow channel structures significantly impacts the performance enhancement of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this paper, the influences of the loop radius, inclination angle, and presence of the island in the Tesla valve flow field on the performance of a fuel cell were investigated numerically. The results indicated that increasing the inclination angle and curvature radius of the Tesla valve increased the voltage by 16.3% and 31.1%, respectively, compared to the parallel flow field at 0.8 A/cm2. Elevating the inclination angle amplified the resistance effect exerted by tributaries on the main stream, consequently fostering channel-to-membrane mass transfer. Increasing the curvature radius contributed to a heightened total oxygen concentration, but also led to water accumulation problems. The removal of islands increased the reactant contact area, but also created more dead zones, resulting in an observed improvement compared to the parallel flow field, but only marginal improvements over the basic Tesla flow field.

Efficient thermal management is critical for sustaining the performance and durability of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs), where excessive operating temperatures accelerate material degradation and reduce power output. Previous studies have explored various cooling channel designs; however, limited research integrates zigzag multi-fin geometries with both computational and experimental validation for fin width optimization under high-velocity cooling. This study presents a combined Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation using ANSYS Fluent and experimental investigation of a multi-fin multi-channel cooling system for PEMFCs. The effects of fin widths (0.3–1.0 mm), inlet flow velocities (0.6–3.0 m/s), and cooling media (air, 20% ethylene glycol (EG) solution) were analyzed with respect to cathode surface temperature, power density, and cooling efficiency. Results show that a 0.3 mm fin width with 3.0 m/s inlet velocity reduced the cathode temperature by ~13 K and increased power density by ~40%. The optimized zigzag configuration improved heat transfer uniformity, achieving cooling efficiencies up to 67.0%. Experimental validation confirmed the CFD results with less than 3% deviation. The findings highlight the potential of optimized multi-fin designs to enhance PEMFC thermal stability and electrical output, offering a practical approach for advanced fuel cell thermal management systems.