The effect of impurities derived from organic hydride on polymer electrolyte fuel cell performance was evaluated with low anode platinum loadings at a constant current of 1000 mA cm-2 and 60?C cell temperature. A voltage drop caused by impurities such as toluene, methylcyclohexane, benzene, cyclohexane, n-butane and iso-butane at 50 ppm in the hydrogen feed was not observed. Gas analysis at the anode exhaust revealed that toluene, which is likely to contaminate the hydrogen, was hydrogenated to form methylcyclohexane. The voltage was not changed regardless of the toluene feed because the reaction of toluene hydrogenation on the anode electrocatalyst was sufficiently fast.

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ISO 26262, an international functional safety standard of electrical and/or electronic systems (E/E systems) for motor vehicles, was published in November 2011 and it is expected that the scope will be extended to motorcycles in the second edition of ISO 26262 to be published in 2018. In order to apply ISO 26262 to motorcycles, proper estimation of Exposure, Controllability, and Severity are key factors to determine Motorcycle Safety Integrity Level (MSIL). It is not easy to estimate the motorcycle Exposure due to less availability of back ground data compared to motor vehicles. Therefore real traffic situation should be investigated in order to provide rationales for the MSIL determination. In this study, we examined the Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment (HARA) for motorcycle in accordance with ISO/PAS 19695 and identified motorcycle-specific operational situations. Then we executed a field survey for the acquisition of actual operational situation data and estimated Exposure.

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Thermal mechanical characteristics of sulfonated polyether sulfone (SPES) and NR211 polymer electrolyte membranes were evaluated by dynamic mechanical analysis and thermal mechanical analysis (TMA) with and without catalytic layers, under several humidity conditions. Humidity cycle tests were also conducted using single-cells to examine any correlation between the humidity cycle life and thermal mechanical characteristics of the polymer electrolyte membranes. The humidity cycle durability of SPES was much lower than NR211 though SPES showed a higher storage modulus over a wide range of humidity. TMA showed that SPES had stronger tendency of swelling deformation in the surface direction compared to NR211. These results suggest that suppressing physical swelling under humid conditions can be considered to be more effective in improving humidity cycle durability rather than increasing the storage elastic modulus.

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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[in Japanese]

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