RESEARCH ARTICLE Effect of cell compression on the performance of a non–hot‐ pressed MEA for PEMFC Naveen K. Shrivastava 1 | Abheek Chatterjee 2 | Tequila A.L. Harris 3 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani‐Dubai Campus, UAE 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Warangal 506004, India 3 George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA Correspondence Tequila A. L. Harris, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. Email: tequila.harris@me.gatech.edu Funding information National Science Foundation, Grant/ Award Number: CMMI‐095339 Summary In this study, the effect of cell compression on the performance of a non–hot‐ pressed membrane electrode assembly (MEA) for a polymer electrolyte mem- brane fuel cell (PEMFC) is presented. The MEA is made without hot pressing, by carefully placing the gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) and a membrane in a fuel cell fixture. Cell performance is assessed at five different compression ratios between 3.6% and 47.8%. It has been shown that ohmic resistance of the cell, mass transport resistance of reactants, charge transfer resistance at electrode, and overall cell performance are strongly dependent on the cell com- pression. On increasing the cell compression gradually, cell performance improves initially, reaches the best, and then deteriorates. The cell performance is assessed at fully humidified condition and at dry condition. Optimum cell performances are obtained at compression ratios of 14.2% and 25.7% for 100% relative humidity (RH) and 50% RH, respectively. It is also found that the cell with proper compression and at fully humidified conditions can deliver similar performance to a conventional hot‐pressed MEA. Finally, it is shown that after the tests, GDEs can be peeled out, and the membrane inspection can be done as a postexperimental analysis. KEYWORDS compression, degradation, gas diffusion electrode, gasket, polymer electrolyte membrane, polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell 1 | INTRODUCTION Research on nonconventional energy sources such as fuel cells has drastically increased in the recent past due to the depletion of fossil fuel‐based conventional energy sources and the pollution concerns associated with them. 1 Poly- mer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are among the most advanced fuel cell technologies. These are prom- ising for both stationary and portable applications due to various advantages, including low operating temperature, rapid startup and shut‐down, high power density, high efficiency, and noise and pollution free operation. 1-4 Despite the significant progress that has been made, there still remain critical issues and challenges, such as cost, durability, cold start capability, water and thermal man- agement, which must be addressed in order to achieve the widespread commercialization of the PEMFCs. 3,5 In a fuel cell, gaskets are used between membrane elec- trode assembly (MEA) and flow field plate to avoid gas leakage. All the cell components (membrane, gas diffusion electrodes [GDE], flow field plates, current collectors, and end plates along with gaskets) are held together firmly with several nuts and bolts to make better electrical contact between all the components. Cell assembly pressure, bolt torque, thickness of the gasket applied between the MEA, and flow field plates are interrelated. Mostly, carbon cloth Received: 16 May 2019 Revised: 24 September 2019 Accepted: 25 September 2019 DOI: 10.1002/er.4933 Int J Energy Res. 2019;1–18. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/er 1