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US 2008/0075985 A1Published application
Adaptive purge control to prevent electrode redox cycles in fuel cell systems
AssigneeIon America Corporation
InventorMatthias Gottmann
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of operating a fuel cell system during a fuel outage or shortage includes detecting an open circuit voltage (OCV) of the fuel cell system, and providing a reducing purge gas flow to anode electrodes of fuel cells of the fuel cell system when the OCV approaches, reaches or falls below a threshold value below which oxidation of the anode electrodes occurs.
Claims23
A method of operating a fuel cell system during a fuel outage or shortage, comprising:
- detecting an open circuit voltage (OCV) of the fuel cell system;
- and
- providing a reducing purge gas flow to anode electrodes of fuel cells of the fuel cell system when the OCV approaches, reaches or falls below a threshold value below which oxidation of the anode electrodes occurs.
A fuel cell system, comprising:
- a fuel cell stack comprising a plurality of fuel cells;
- a purge material storage vessel;
- and
- a means for providing a reducing purge gas flow using purge material stored in the purge material storage vessel to anode electrodes of the plurality of the fuel cells when an open circuit voltage (OCV) of the stack approaches, reaches or falls below a threshold value below which oxidation of the anode electrodes occurs.
1 more element
A fuel cell system, comprising:
- a fuel cell stack comprising a plurality of fuel cells;
- a purge material storage vessel;
- and
- a control system, which in operation, provides a reducing purge gas flow using purge material stored in the purge material storage vessel to anode electrodes of the plurality of the fuel cells when an open circuit voltage (OCV) of the stack approaches, reaches or falls below a threshold value below which oxidation of the anode electrodes occurs.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.