Back to results
US 7,353,085 B2Granted
Electrolyzer cell stack system
AssigneeHydrogenics Corporation
InventorsAli Rusta-Sallehy, Michael Vale
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeHydrogenics Corporation
InventorsAli Rusta-Sallehy, Michael Vale
Estimating the term…
As an electrochemical cell stack gets older the internal resistances within the stack rise overtime as the materials that the stack is made of degrade. Consequently, an old and “worn” electrochemical cell stack draws less current at the same stack voltage and operating temperature as a new stack. When the current draw falls the electrochemical reaction rates also fall, as less energy is available to drive the electrochemical reactions. However, if the operating temperature of an older stack is controllable raised the current draw by an electrolyzer cell stack also rises, which in turn causes the reaction rates to rise again. Accordingly, in some embodiments, a balance-of-plant system is operable to regulate the current draw of an electrolyzer cell stack by first manipulating the operating temperature of the same electrolyzer cell stack.
A balance-of-plant system, suited for regulating the operating temperature of an electrolyzer cell stack having at least one electrolyzer cell, comprising:
An electrolyzer cell stack module comprising a controller for changing the operating temperature of the electrolyzer cell stack as the stack ages to compensate for degradation of the components of the electrolyzer cell stack, wherein as the current draw decreases for a fixed voltage, the operating temperature increases, and the controller has instructions for:
A method of regulating the operating temperature of an electrolyzer cell stack having at least one electrolyzer cell, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.