Our regenerative loads are accurate, fast, and cost-effective, having a full range of features to test fuel cell resistance, performance, and cell lifetime. Our bidirectional laboratory power supplies offer greater flexibility and lower operating costs by simulating the characteristics of different fuel cells all at the touch of a button. At EA we offer versatile solutions. Our devices can be used to test and simulate fuel cells for all common applications, such as in industrial trucks, delivery vehicles, long-distance trucks, and emergency power generators. As the fuel cell market is currently experiencing growth, at a rate of 30% brought upon by factors such as government initiatives, economic incentives, and new applications, the importance of ensuring flexibility while maintaining lower operating costs has increased exponentially throughout the industry.

• Simple to use, because the arbitrary waveform function generator is already built in

• Cost-effective, because autoranging and other features optimize the test sequence

• Sustainable, because 96% regenerative power supply significantly reduces heat generation and energy consumption

Do you want to test key metrics of a fuel cell such as resistance, performance, and lifetime quickly and cost-efficiently? The solution is our EA-ELR 10000 series of regenerative loads, which are ideal for fuel cell testing, have an input power of 30kW. For mass testing, you can connect our units in parallel to reach up to 1.92MW. Our electronic loads offer features built to give you the maximum flexibility in testing, such as a built-in arbitrary waveform generator, a function generator, and true auto-ranging. Testing with our regenerative loads can allow you to significantly reduce energy loss. Our regenerative loads operate at 96% efficiency, feeding energy back into the mains instead of dissipating it in the form of heat. Testing with our systems saves you power and eliminates the need for the costly operation of additional cooling systems.

Also suitable for fuel cell testing is our EA-PSB 10000 bidirectional power supply, which also achieves 30kW and has the same features.

Our EA-PSB 10000 bidirectional power supply is built so that you can determine the performance of various fuel cells and their characteristics as easily, quickly, and cost-efficiently as possible. You can utilize our units to simulate numerous fuel cell and their specific characteristics; you can even simulate particularly powerful or multiple fuel cells simultaneously by increasing 30kW of power to 1.92MW when connected in parallel.

As a bidirectional solution, the EA-PSB also operates as a load and can thus also be used for testing fuel cells. Thanks to grid regeneration, the absorbed energy can be fed back into the grid with over 96% efficiency.

Fuel Cell Stack Performance Test

Simulation of different VI characteristics 

A common indication of cell performance can be observed through the polarization and power density curves of the fuel cell stack. These curves are usually assessed under the optimal operating conditions (temperature, humidity, electrocatalysis, and ion-exchange membrane) of a fuel cell stack.

By programming DC electronic loads in different current or resistance profiles, these measurements can easily be obtained. Our electronic loads at EA Elektro-Automatik such as our ELR 10000 4U series can offer a wide variety of dynamic loading tests for fuel cell characterization.

Our efficiency continues with the control of our products. The EA Power Control operating software allows convenient and precise control of EA products via Windows PC. This allows you to remotely control and monitor our DC power supplies and electronic loads from the comfort of your PC. With the optional Multi Control you can manage the settings of up to 20 EA devices simultaneously.

• Remote control of up to 20 devices simultaneously

• Process flow control and recording of data

• Control of the integral function generator

• Clear layout of all functions

• Easy firmware updates

• No programming effort required