System and method for controlling hydrogen stack current and load
AssigneeOhmium International, Inc.
InventorsArne Ballantine, Frederick Paul Freeland, Jr., Rasool Aghatehrani, Chockkalingam Karuppaiah
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for controlling hydrogen stack power and load. The systems include at least one hydrogen stack, a pressure sensor, and a controller, wherein the controller is operable to increase or decrease the power to the at least one hydrogen stack in response to a change in pressure. The methods include generating hydrogen using at least one hydrogen stack, measuring the pressure of the generated hydrogen, and increasing or decreasing the power supplied to the at least one hydrogen stack in response to an increase or decrease in the pressure.
Claims23
A system for generating hydrogen, the system comprising:
- at least one hydrogen stack to generate hydrogen;
- a header pressure sensor operable to measure an output pressure of the generated hydrogen from the at least one hydrogen stack;
- and
- a controller in electrical communication with the at least one hydrogen stack and with the header pressure sensor, the controller:
- receiving a header pressure indicator from the header pressure sensor comprising an indication of the output pressure of the generated hydrogen from the at least one hydrogen stack;
- and
- controlling, based on the indication of the output pressure of the generated hydrogen from the at least one hydrogen stack, a power supplied to the at least one hydrogen stack to maintain a predetermined header pressure,
- wherein an amount of power supplied to the at least one hydrogen stack is directly proportional to a control factor corresponding to a degradation of hydrogen production over time and based on a predetermined historical rate of hydrogen production generated by the at least one hydrogen stack, the control factor causing the at least one hydrogen stack to produce an amount of hydrogen that maintains the predetermined header pressure.
A method for controlling a hydrogen production system, the method comprising:
- controlling, by a controller, a plurality of hydrogen stacks to generate hydrogen, wherein each of the plurality of hydrogen stacks is supplied with a power, the generated hydrogen from the plurality of hydrogen stacks stored in a buffer tank;
- receiving an indication of a combined header pressure from a header pressure sensor;
- determining, based on an operational condition of the plurality of hydrogen stacks, a control factor for each of the plurality of hydrogen stacks, the control factor corresponding to a degradation of hydrogen production over time and based on a predetermined historical rate of hydrogen production generated by a corresponding hydrogen stack of the plurality of hydrogen stacks;
- and
- adjusting a power to at least one of the plurality of hydrogen stacks based on the combined header pressure and the control factor of the determined at least one of the plurality of hydrogen stacks, the control factor causing the at least one to produce an amount of hydrogen that maintains the predetermined header pressure.
A system for controlling hydrogen production, the system comprising:
- a plurality of hydrogen stacks, wherein the each of the plurality of hydrogen stacks are supplied with a power to generate hydrogen;
- a header pressure sensor operable to measure a combined header pressure of the hydrogen generated from the plurality of hydrogen stacks;
- and
- a controller operable to increase or decrease the power supplied to each of the plurality of hydrogen stacks to maintain a predetermined header pressure,
- wherein the controller is in communication with each of the plurality of hydrogen stacks and with the header pressure sensor,
- wherein an amount of power supplied to each of the plurality of hydrogen stacks is directly proportional to a control factor corresponding to a degradation of hydrogen production over time and based on an amount of hydrogen generated by each of the plurality of hydrogen stacks, and
- wherein the amount of power supplied to each of the plurality of hydrogen stacks is determined according to a predetermined historical rate of hydrogen production of a corresponding one of the plurality of hydrogen stacks, the control factor causing the at least one hydrogen stack to produce an amount of hydrogen that maintains the predetermined header pressure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.