Finite time analysis of an endoreversible fuel cell

International audienceThe aim of this paper consists in a new thermodynamical description of the fuel cell, using the finite time thermodynamics. Starting from the comparison beetween a reversible fuel cell and a Carnot heat engine driven by a perfect chemical reaction, we remind that – contrary to a common opinion – both systems have the same thermodynamical performances. Thereby, we evolve the comparison beetween these two systems to the area of finite time thermodynamics. The main results is the definition of an endoreversible fuel cell characterized by a maximum-power efficiency like the famous Chambadal-Novikov one