System for determining a gas composition within a shut down fuel cell power plant and method of operation

The invention is a system (10) and method for determining a gas composition within a fuel cell (12) of a shut down fuel cell power plant. The system (10) includes at least one fuel cell (12), a sensor circuit (86) secured in electrical connection with the fuel cell (12), wherein the circuit (86) inc...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors BALLIET RYAN J, REISER CARL A
Format Patent
LanguageEnglish
Published 18.03.2004
Edition7
Subjects
BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
ELECTRICITY
PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSIONOF CHEMICAL INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
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Summary:The invention is a system (10) and method for determining a gas composition within a fuel cell (12) of a shut down fuel cell power plant. The system (10) includes at least one fuel cell (12), a sensor circuit (86) secured in electrical connection with the fuel cell (12), wherein the circuit (86) includes a power source (88), a voltage-measuring device (90), and a sensor circuit switch (92). The circuit (86) is secured so that the power source (88) may selectively deliver a predetermined sensing current to the fuel cell (12) for a pre-determined sensing duration. The system (10) selectively admits the reducing fluid into an anode flow field (28) of the cell (12) whenever the sensor circuit (86) senses that a shut down monitoring voltage of the fuel cell (12) is the same as or exceeds a calibrated sensor voltage limit of the fuel cell (12).
Bibliography:Application Number: US20020244495