News and Views Design of a proton exchange membrane portable fuel cell system for the 1st international association for hydrogen energy design competition Kristopher Inman, Zakaria Ahmad, Zhongying Shi, Xia Wang* Department of Mechanical Engineering, Oakland University, 2200 N. Squirrel Road, Rochester, MI 48309, USA Keywords: PEM fuel cells Portable Design IAHE abstract A portable hydrogen fueled proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system was designed to meet the design constraints of the 1st International Association for Hydrogen Energy Portable Fuel Cell Design Competition that could be used to supply power to portable devices. The portable PEMFC stack has a physical dimension of 5.95  5.95  1.95 cm and 0.275 kg in mass. The PEMFC stack has a continuous output power of 12.5 W with a peak power output of 17 W. The fuel cell stack is an open cathode design which uses an external fan for both cooling and air supply. The fuel cell system includes an external fan along with power and control electronics that powers the fan and provides steady 5 V and 12 V outputs. The system also includes a standard USB connector for charging portable devices such as cellular phones and portable media players. A detailed description of the fuel cell stack and system design is presented along with experimental data demonstrating the stack and system performance. 1. Introduction Recently, portable electronic devices such as notebook computers and cellular phones have experienced a boom in popularity and are now commonly owned by most people in the developed world. However, power requirements for these devices are increasing as demand for more power and longer runtime are increasing. Portable electronic devices are typi- cally powered by batteries which often are characterized by a low energy density and must be frequently recharged. Another, and much less common, option for powering portable devices is the use of fuel cells. It has been shown that fuel cells have the ability to provide greater energy density and longer operating time than batteries in some applications [1]. Fuel cells also provide the advantage of not needing to be recharged for long periods of time and instead can be easily and quickly refueled. Although portable fuel cells are an attractive alternative to batteries for portable devices, they are often more complex due to ancillary devices such as fans or pumps and power and control electronics. This increased level of complexity creates significant design challenges when developing a portable fuel cell system. In order to aid in the development of such portable fuel cell systems, the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE) chapter at Oakland University (OU) has designed, constructed, and tested a hydrogen fueled portable Proton * Corresponding author. 169 DHE, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Oakland University, 2200 N. Squirrel Road, Rochester, MI 48309, USA. Tel.: þ1 248 370 2224; fax: þ1 248 370 4416. E-mail address: wang@oakland.edu (X. Wang). Available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy 36 (2011) 13868 e13874 0360-3199/$ e see front matter doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.04.213