Commissariat &#xc0; L'&#xc9;nergie Atomique Et Aux &#xc9;nergies Alternatives

Didier Buzon

Daniel Chatroux

Jean-Philippe Poirot-Crouvezier

Remi Vincent

Rémi Vincent

Fabrice Micoud

A process for supplying a fuel cell with reactive species, including a stack of electrochemical cells divided into N different groups, wherein a plurality of steps of selectively supplying the N groups of cells with reactive species are carried out, following each of the supply steps, a step of purging the N groups of cells is carried out.

Process for supplying a fuel cell having alternate supply and purge phases

An electrochemical generator comprises a stack of cells in series. To control the voltage across the terminals, controlling means comprise, for each cell, a first reactive passive component, the impedance varying depending on the DC voltage across its terminals, being biased by the voltage delivered by the cell, and a second reactive or resonant passive component forming, with the first reactive passive component, a series or parallel resonant circuit having a preset nominal resonant frequency for a nominal biasing voltage delivered by the cell. Using a variable frequency signal generator to supply the resonant circuits allows a detection circuit to detect resonant peak(s) across the terminals. The divergence between the resonant frequency corresponding to a detected peak and the nominal resonant frequency indicates the state of the associated cell. The frequency differences directly, for their part, provide information on the uniformity of the cells with respect to each other.

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Grenoble, France

Didier Buzon