Method for controlling a fuel cell system

A fuel cell system (100) comprising:

• a fuel cell stack (10) with an anode side (11) and a cathode side (12), an exhaust gas line (13), a fuel line with a recirculation circuit (14) and at least one valve line (15) connected to the recirculation circuit, wherein the at least one valve line (15) and the exhaust line (13) merge into a measurement line (16),
• the fuel cell system (100) also comprises an H2 sensor and/or H2O sensor (19) located on the measurement line (16) and a control unit,
• wherein the control unit is configured to
• measure an H2 concentration and/or an H2O concentration in the measurement line (16),
• determine the H2 concentration, N2 concentration, a vapor concentration and/or a water amount on the anode side (11) of the fuel cell stack (10) based on the measured H2 concentration and/or the measured H2O concentration, by means of a trained machine-learning method (20), and
• adapt a purge duration and/or a purge interval based the determined H2 concentration and/or N2 concentration on the anode side (11) of the fuel cell stack (10) and adapt a drain duration and/or a drain interval based on determined vapor concentration and/or the water amount on the anode side (11) of the fuel cell stack (10), or adapt a drain duration and/or a drain interval based on the determined vapor concentration and/or the water amount on the anode side (11) of the fuel cell stack.

A non-transitory, computer-readable medium containing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to control a fuel cell system (100), wherein the fuel cell system (100) comprises a fuel cell stack (10) with an anode side (11) and a cathode side (12), an exhaust gas line (13), a fuel line with a recirculation circuit (14) and at least one valve line (15) connected to the recirculation circuit (14), wherein the at least one valve line (15) and the exhaust line (13) merge into a measurement line (16), and the at least one valve line (15) has a valve (18), by:

• measuring an H2 concentration and/or an H2O concentration in the measurement line (16),
• determining the H2 concentration, N2 concentration, a vapor concentration and/or a water amount on the anode side (11) of the fuel cell stack (10) based on the measured H2 concentration and/or the measured H2O concentration, by means of a trained machine-learning method (20), and
• adapting a purge duration and/or a purge interval based the determined H2 concentration and/or N2 concentration on the anode side (11) of the fuel cell stack (10) and adapting a drain duration and/or a drain interval based on determined vapor concentration and/or the water amount on the anode side (11) of the fuel cell stack (10), or adapting a drain duration and/or a drain interval based on the determined vapor concentration and/or the water amount on the anode side (11) of the fuel cell stack.