The Use of a Small Single Fuel Cell to Feed a 10H Superconducting Coil

Melika Hinaje (1) , Stéphane Raël (1) , Kévin Berger (1) , Rafael-Antonio Linares-Lamus (1) , Jean Lévêque (1)

1 GREEN - Groupe de Recherche en Energie Electrique de Nancy

In this paper, we propose to replace the usual dedicated electronic power supplies of superconducting coil, which are in most cases a huge volume and/or a low energy yield, by a 100 cm² single proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Indeed, fuel cells are electrochemical converters which can be considered as DC low voltage electrical source. Preliminary investigations led with a single proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) could evidence the behavior as a DC current source, in which the current is directly controlled by the hydrogen flow rate. In a first step, we highlighted the feasibility by supplying a small superconducting coil, with an inductance value of 4 mH by means of a single PEMFC and proved that dedicated power source can be replaced by fuel cell. The second step is to feed a superconducting coil with higher inductance, 10 H, as presented in the present work.

Mots clés: power supply; proton exchange membrane fuel cell; superconducting coils

Domaines: Energie électrique; Supraconductivité [cond-mat.supr-con]; Electromagnétisme

Melika Hinaje, Stéphane Raël, Kévin Berger, Rafael-Antonio Linares-Lamus, Jean Lévêque. The Use of a Small Single Fuel Cell to Feed a 10H Superconducting Coil . IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 2018, 28 (5), pp.4902606. ⟨10.1109/TASC.2018.2815921⟩. ⟨hal-01596630v2⟩