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US 2026/0051520 A1Published application
Fuel cell hydrogen gas mitigation
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsWilliam Frederick SANDERSON, JR., Valentina MEJIA MEJIA
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fuel cell includes an anode, a cathode, and a membrane separating the anode and the cathode. A controller, responsive to expiration of a predetermined time period that begins with disconnection of the fuel cell from an electrical bus, injects hydrogen gas into the anode and purges the cathode of oxygen.
Claims20
An automotive fuel cell system comprising:
- a fuel cell including an anode, a cathode, and a membrane separating the anode and the cathode;
- and
- a controller programmed to, responsive to expiration of a predetermined time period that begins with disconnection of the fuel cell from an electrical bus, inject hydrogen gas into the anode and purge the cathode of oxygen.
A method for mitigation in a fuel cell system comprising:
- injecting an inactive fuel cell system with hydrogen gas when a time duration since fuel cell system inactivation exceeds a threshold time for hydrogen gas depletion across the fuel cell system;
- and
- depleting oxygen from the fuel cell system.
A method comprising:
- providing hydrogen gas to an inactive electrochemical cell anode when an elapsed time since deactivation of a corresponding electrochemical cell exceeds a predefined hydrogen gas depletion threshold, thereby reactivating the electrochemical cell;
- and
- removing oxygen from the electrochemical cell to initiate an inactive state and reduce residual voltage for subsequent reactivation of the electrochemical cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.