APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ACTIVATING FUEL CELL STACK

Disclosed is an apparatus and method for activating a fuel cell stack, which significantly reduces the time required for activation and the amount of hydrogen used for the activation by employing a vacuum wetting process in a shutdown operation. In particular, a high humidity open circuit voltage op...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors LEE JAE HYUK, LEE SUNG KEUN, CHOO HYUN SUK, SHIN HWAN SOO
Format Patent
LanguageEnglish
Published 24.01.2013
Subjects
BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
ELECTRICITY
PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSIONOF CHEMICAL INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
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Summary:Disclosed is an apparatus and method for activating a fuel cell stack, which significantly reduces the time required for activation and the amount of hydrogen used for the activation by employing a vacuum wetting process in a shutdown operation. In particular, a high humidity open circuit voltage operation humidifies the fuel cell stack and operates the fuel cell stack at an open circuit voltage, and a vacuum wetting operation wets the surface of a polymer electrolyte membrane by creating a vacuum atmosphere in the fuel cell stack. The high humidity open circuit voltage operation and the vacuum wetting operation are performed alternately and repeatedly.
Bibliography:Application Number: US201113297693