Volkswagen Ag

Audi Ag

Wolfgang Hable

Christian Lucas

Torsten Schwarz

Harald Heinrich

The disclosure relates to a method for operating a fuel cell system and a correspondingly configured fuel cell system, comprising a fuel cell stack, an anode supply with a hydrogen reservoir, an anode supply path connecting the hydrogen reservoir to the fuel cell stack, a recirculation path connecting a fuel cell outlet to the anode supply path, and a conveying device for conveying recirculated anode exhaust gas. The method provides for a tank mass flow supplied from the hydrogen reservoir to the anode circuit to be determined by balancing the material flows supplied to and discharged from the anode circuit, wherein the tank mass flow enters the balancing as a material flow supplied to the anode circuit.

Method for operating a fuel cell

The invention relates to a method to determine a content of a gas component in a gas mixture delivered recirculating through an anode chamber () or a cathode chamber () of a fuel cell (), wherein the delivery takes place via a delivery device () functioning according to the positive displacement principle. The invention also relates to a fuel cell system () configured to execute the method. According to the invention, the content of the gas component is determined depending on geometric parameters (V, &#x3be;) and operating parameters (n, U, I) of the delivery device (), as well as on thermodynamic state variables (p, T) of the gas mixture. The sought target quantity, for example a hydrogen component of an anode gas, can thus be determined in a simple and robust manner from quantities that are already known or measured.

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Braunschweig, Germany

Wolfgang Hable