The effect of impurities derived from organic chemical hydride and carbon monoxide (CO) mixtures in hydrogen fuel on polymer electrolyte fuel cell performance has been evaluated. Cell voltage did not drop after toluene (50 ppm) addition in the hydrogen fuel. In contrast, CO (0.2 ppm) in hydrogen caused a drastical drop in cell voltage. The cell voltage drop in the case of the CO (0.2 ppm) and toluene (50 ppm) mixture became larger than the sum when CO and toluene were added independently. However, such a synergistic effect of the voltage drop was not seen with the allowable concentration in toluene and CO described in ISO 14687-2. In addition, the synergistic effect of the voltage drop was not seen in the case of CO (0.2 ppm) and methylcyclohexane (50 ppm) or iso-butane (50 ppm) mixtures.

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