Advantages of High-temperature PEM Fuel Cells

1 Improved Reaction Kinetics with Increasing Temperature [1, 2] 

In a H2/O2 (or air) PEMFC, the cathode reaction is the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR)  

The relationship between the eurrent density and the overpotential is given by the following Equation 18.1  

The relationship between current density and overpotential is given by Equation 

In a fuel cell, the current density for both anode and cathode are equal. Thus in Equation 18.1 equals 7a in Equation 18.2. Since the exchange current density of H2 oxidation (10 A/cm ) is significantly larger than that of O2 reduction ( 10 A/cm ), the fuel cell reaction kinetics is mainly dominated by the O2 reduction reaction. 

---