Theoretical proposition of control and data acquisition system for a test stand for single-cell testing of pem hydrogen fuel cells

Accurate, traceable characterisation of proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells at the single-cell level is pivotal for material screening, degradation studies and control-algorithm development. However, commercial diagnostic benches typically cost €20,000-150,000, limiting access for many research and teaching laboratories. This paper introduces a fully open-hardware, modular test stand that delivers 0.1 mV voltage resolution and a 0-50 A current envelope for a bill of materials of only €14,000. The architecture is split into a measurement & regulation layer built around temperature-controlled shunts and a 12-bit delta-sigma ADC, a control & SCADA layer based on an ESP32-S3 micro-controller and CompactDAQ interface, and a hydrogen-supply layer equipped with SIL-2 safety instrumentation. A rigorously quantified Type-A/Type-B uncertainty budget, prepared in accordance with ISO/IEC Guide 98-3 and validated via a 10,000-run Monte-Carlo simulation, yields an expanded cell-voltage uncertainty of ±0.38 % (k = 2). A built-in real-time digital twin couples an equivalent-circuit model with reduced-order CFD to enable what-if analyses and predictive maintenance. Comparative benchmarking against the AVL E-Load 2 and ZSW single-cell rigs shows equal or better metrological performance at ≤ 25% of their cost. A proof-of--concept dynamic-load experiment confirms the stand’s fidelity, establishing a low-cost pathway towards scalable, open and safe PEM fuel-cell diagnostics.