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Fuel cell vehicles (FCV) have become a promising transportation tool because of their high efficiency, fast response and zero-emission. However, the cold start problem is one of the main obstacles to limit the further commercialization of FCV in cold weather countries. Many efforts have made to improve the cold start ability. This review presents comprehensive heating methods and influence factors of the research progress in solving the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) system cold start problems with more than 100 patents, papers and reports, which may do some help for PEMFC system cold start from the point of practical utilization. Firstly, recent achievements and goals will be summarized in the introduction part. Then, regarding the heating strategies for the PEMFC system cold start, different heating solutions are classified into self-heating strategies and auxiliary-heating heating depending on their heating sources providing approach.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system is considered as one of the most popular power sources because of its high energy density, fast dynamic response and zero pollution. However, the start-up at low temperature (e.g. - 30 °C) is still a major challenge for its wide application due to water freezing in Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA). In this paper, a cold start test process in an environment cabin with auxiliary heat was carried out for a full power automotive PEMFC system, including normal operation, shutdown purge and cold start processes analysis from -30°C. Rated power of this stack is 100kW at the current density of 1.4A/cm2 and relevant maximum output power can reach to 120kW. In order to reduce the damage of high potential to MEA, on-load purge with a current of 30A is conducted to removing extra water in stack for improving cold start ability. Based on corresponding control strategy, cold start was realized successfully within 110s.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) is considered the most promising alternative vehicle power in the future owing to its highly power density and zero carbon emission. However, Voltage inconsistency of PEMFC is an essential issue that influences the performance of a PEMFC. It is affected by flow-rate and relative humidity of the inlet air. It’s necessary to establish a control strategy to ensure air supplied timely. A PEMFC system bench with 30 cells (the cells are numbered 1-30 in the direction from near to far from the air intake port) assembled in series was established to investigate the control strategy of air supply system. According to fuel cell’s position of the lowest voltage and the corresponding air flow rate, there are three different operations as follows. When it appears not in the low numbered area and the air flow rate is high, it indicates that humidity of the cell is insufficient and it needs to reduce power of the blower or close the bypass-valve.