Systems and methods for controlling oxygen concentration in a cathode of a fuel cell system

A fuel cell system comprising:

• a cathode compartment;
• a compressor coupled to the cathode compartment configured to receive an input cathode gas via a compressor input and supply the input cathode gas to the cathode compartment via a compressor output;
• an exhaust gas recirculation valve coupled to the cathode compartment configured to receive a cathode exhaust gas output and to selectively provide at least a portion of the cathode exhaust gas output to the compressor input;
• and
• a control system configured to control the operation of the exhaust gas recirculation valve, to receive measurement information associated with an output voltage of the fuel cell system, and to implement at least one operation of the fuel cell system associated with a particular oxygen concentration threshold level in the cathode compartment based on the measurement information exceeding at least one threshold, the at least one operation comprising a cathode anion contaminant removal operation;
• wherein the compressor is further configured to supply the at least a portion of the cathode exhaust gas output to the cathode compartment via the compressor output.