• Environmental pollution at the current state of fossil fuel consumption has led clean energy devices like proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) to emerge as alternative energy generation solutions. However, the use of PEMFCs for portable applications is less feasible because of the heavy subsystems which are required for its efficient operation.
• Fuel cells produce less than ideal voltage outputs due to the ohmic losses within the fuel cell caused by electronic impedances through the electrodes, contacts, and current collectors. Therefore, stack component development, diagnosis, and management are essential to ensure improved stack design and operation for tackling the existing implementation challenges of PEMFCs.
• Additionally, improving PEMFCs performance and durability can be achieved by fundamentally understanding and tuning their catalyst layer structures and compositions.

The present technology is a tubular proton exchange membrane fuel cell and a fuel cell stack with a number of single fuel cells in a modular arrangement for larger energy requirements through the integration of several base stacks.

1. An anode current collector tube provided with slots comprising a fuel inlet and a fuel outlet, a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) wrapped around the anode tube to allow contact between an anode gas diffusion layer and the anode tube.
2. A cathode current collector tube comprising two hollow semi cylindrical components placed over a cathode gas diffusion layer, wrapped around the MEA and a plurality of compression ties wrapped around the cathode tube to compress the MEA.
3. The slots in the anode tube allow the fuel supplied to the tube to reach an anode catalyst layer. The cathode tube has slots of optimal rib thickness on the tube to allow the cell to breathe air from the atmosphere.