Hydrogenics Corporation

Michael Vale

Ali Rusta-Sallehy

Nathaniel Ian Joos

David Frank

Some embodiments of the present invention provide a balance-of-plant system and apparatus suited for regulating the operation of an electrolyzer cell stack. Specifically, in some embodiments, a balance-of-plant system and apparatus is operable to regulate the respective pressures of at least two reaction products relative to one another. Various examples are provided to demonstrate how the respective pressures of two reaction products can be regulated in relation to one another in a pressure following configuration, thereby regulating the pressure differential across an electrolyte layer according to aspects of different embodiments of the invention. Some of the examples provided also include design simplifications and alternatives that may reduce production costs of electrochemical cells configured according to aspects of different embodiments of the invention.

Electrolyzer cell stack system

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.

Some embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method suited for controlling the operation of an electrolyzer cell module. Specifically, some embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method that incorporates a call to an alarm recovery sequence into a safety system suited for use with an electrolyzer cell module, which is able to suspend the normal operations and initiate an alarm recovery sequence upon detecting that a corresponding alarm threshold has been violated. The safety system and method is then able to restart the normal operations if it is determined that the alarm recovery sequence was successful, meaning that the process and operating parameters that violated the particular alarm threshold have been brought back to within a safe operating range.

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Brampton, Canada

Michael Vale