Waste heat utilization in fuel cell trams with thermoelectric generators

In this paper, a waste heat utilization system (WHUS) is proposed for the energy efficiency improvement in PEMFC trams. Based on thermoelectric generators (TEG), an experimental platform of WHUS has been built. A series of simulation tests of the different operating conditions have been conducted on the thermal management test platform of water-cooled PEMFC to analyze the performance of WHUS and the influence of WHUS on the existing cooling system. Based on the test data of HD6 stack, the feasibility of applied WHUS in PEMFC trams has been verified. From the experimental results, it can be concluded that, in a certain extent, the energy efficiency was improved, and the cooling pressure of fans was alleviated by adding WHUS in the conventional water-cooled cooling system. Hence, It is believed that the proposed method is an effective one for recovering waste heat from PEMFC trams.