Hydrogenics Corporation

Cummins Inc.

Prabhsimran Malhi

Sonia Sorbera

Robert Bencak

Luke Fregonese

Richard J Ancimer

Paolo Forte

Sumit Tripathi

Justin Rizzi

Eero Teene

Salvatore Ranieri

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for detecting a hydrogen leak in a fuel cell system including initiating a shutdown process of a fuel cell stack in the fuel cell system by a controller, measuring a volume of hydrogen in a reservoir, pulsing a volume of hydrogen into the reservoir or pulsing hydrogen directly into the fuel cell stack if the volume of hydrogen is insufficient to sustain a voltage discharge process during the shutdown process, making the fuel cell system enter a discharge state by the controller, wherein hydrogen and oxygen in the fuel cell stack are consumed in an electrochemical reaction to discharge voltage in the fuel cell stack, measuring a rate of the voltage discharge by the controller, and detecting the hydrogen leak based on the rate of the voltage discharge or via negative pressure measurements made at the anode inlet.

Fuel leak detection in fuel cell stack

The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for operating a shutdown process in a fuel cell system including connecting a passive electrical load to a fuel cell stack in the fuel cell system before initiating the shutdown process, disconnecting a DC-DC converter by a system controller, initiating nitrogen blanketing after a current passing through the DC-DC converter is reduced to about zero, ensuring water content in the fuel cell stack is about zero, and sending a signal to the system controller to initiate the shutdown process.

Electrode pressure balance for a nitrogen blanketing process

The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for detecting a hydrogen leak in a fuel cell system including initiating a shutdown process of a fuel cell stack in the fuel cell system by a controller, measuring a volume of hydrogen in a reservoir, pulsing a volume of hydrogen into the reservoir or pulsing hydrogen directly into the fuel cell stack if the volume of hydrogen is insufficient to sustain a voltage discharge process during the shutdown process, making the fuel cell system enter a discharge state by the controller, wherein hydrogen and oxygen in the fuel cell stack are consumed in an electrochemical reaction to discharge voltage in the fuel cell stack, measuring a rate of the voltage discharge by the controller, and detecting the hydrogen leak based on the rate of the voltage discharge or via negative pressure measurements made at the anode inlet.

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Brampton, Canada

Prabhsimran Malhi