System and method for recovering performance of fuel cell
AssigneeHyundai Motor Company
InventorsHyun Suk Choo, Dae Keun Chun, Hwan Soo Shin, Sung Keun Lee, Jae Hyuk Lee
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Abstract
A method for recovering performance of a degraded polymer electrolyte fuel cell stack through electrode reversal. In detail, oxide films formed on the surface of platinum of a cathode is removed through an electrode reversal process that creates a potential difference between an anode and the cathode by supplying air to the anode instead of hydrogen and supplying a fuel to the cathode instead of air, thus rapidly recovering the performance of a degraded polymer electrolyte fuel cell stack.
Claims6
A method for recovering performance of a fuel cell stack, the method comprising:
- creating a potential difference between an anode and a cathode by supplying air to the anode of the fuel cell stack instead of hydrogen and supplying hydrogen to the cathode instead of air for a predetermined period while maintaining an open circuit voltage of the fuel cell stack, and, at the same time, supplying coolant that is below a predetermined temperature to the fuel cell stack so that droplets are retained in the anode and the cathode;
- and
- shutting down the fuel cell stack for a predetermined time such that a vacuum is created in the anode and the cathode by crossing over of the hydrogen and oxygen in the air between the cathode and the anode, and consuming the hydrogen and the oxygen crossed over, thereby initiate swelling in which droplets retained in the anode and the cathode move toward each other through fine pores of an electrolyte membrane due to the vacuum created in the anode and the cathode;
- wherein the potential difference is created and the coolant is supplied at the same time, and
- wherein the supplied coolant reduces a temperature of a membrane between the cathode and the anode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.