Method for drying a fuel cell, and fuel cell system

Abstract

A method for drying a fuel cell (10) for generating electrical energy for a consumer (20), in particular for a vehicle (20), in which an anode gas having a first reactant is supplied to an anode (200), and a cathode gas having a second reactant is supplied to a cathode (100), and the reactants are converted into electricity along a flow path (300) in the fuel cell (10) by means of an electrochemical reaction, the method having the following steps: a) flushing (2) the cathode (100) with the cathode gas; b) operating (4) the fuel cell (10) with so little cathode gas that the second reactant is substantially consumed along the flow path (300) by the electrochemical reaction for conversion to electricity, an electric current density of the fuel cell (10) being less than 20% of a maximum achievable electric current density of the fuel cell (10).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.