Vehicle applications require efficient cold start ability and durability of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this study, various self-cold start strategies including purging the PEMFC at shutdown and using galvanostatic operation at startup are proposed. The cold start characteristics from −5 • C of a single cell are experimentally investigated in situ on a laboratory scale. The amount of cumulated charge transfer density, corresponding to the amount of product water, is used as an index to quantify the cold start capability. Gas purge at shutdown before freeze is found to facilitate the PEMFC cold start, although the improvement is relatively small compared with other methods such as gradually increasing the current during startup. Microscopic studies of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) after cold start failure are conducted to determine material degradation due to ice formation.

Scientific progress does not consist solely in the discovery of new truths; it also includes the exposure of mistakes. Often errors turned out to be necessary before the truth could finally be discovered. The history of science is thus not only a history of valuable finds, but also one of vagaries, gropings, and failures. There are some mistakes, however, which scarcely belong to the long series of honourable scientific errors and carry a wholly different meaning: these are the mistakes made by scientists or pseudo-scientists who, driven by the will-to-power, have abused science for the temporary achievement of their ambitions.