Proactive anode flooding remediation

A method for preventing flooding of an anode flow-field in a fuel cell stack, said method comprising:

• identifying one or more trigger conditions that could cause the anode flow-field to flood with water, wherein the one or more trigger conditions are selected from the group consisting of determining that a stack current density has fallen below a predetermined stack current density for a predetermined period of time, determining that a stack temperature has fallen below a predetermined temperature value, determining that the stack is operating at a higher relative humidity than normal, and using an anode water accumulation model to determine that the amount of water in the anode flow-field could cause anode flow-field flooding;
• and
• performing one or more proactive remedial actions in response to the one or more trigger conditions that removes water from the anode side flow-field prior to the anode flooding occurring, wherein the one or more proactive remedial actions are selected from the group consisting of increasing an anode pressure bias, causing a proactive anode side bleed event to occur, increasing a hydrogen gas concentration set-point for operation of the fuel cell stack, pulsing stack output power, and pulsing anode pressure from a normal bias to a higher bias.

A method for preventing flooding of an anode flow-field in a fuel cell stack, said method comprising:

• identifying that a voltage of a fuel cell in the fuel cell stack has fallen below a predetermined minimum cell voltage that could cause the anode flow-field to flood with water;
• and
• performing one or more remedial actions in response to the fuel cell voltage falling below the predetermined minimum cell voltage that removes water from the anode side flow-field prior to the anode flooding occurring, wherein the one or more remedial actions are selected from the group consisting of increasing an anode pressure bias, causing a proactive anode side bleed event to occur, increasing a hydrogen gas concentration set-point for operation of the fuel cell stack, pulsing stack output power, and pulsing anode pressure from a normal bias to a higher bias.