The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 01, 2005
Filed:
Jul. 25, 2001
Brian Wells, Vancouver, CA;
Tan Duc Uong, Coquitlam, CA;
Charles Joseph Schembri, Langley, CA;
Gregory A. James, Coquitlam, CA;
George Alexander Skinner, Burnaby, CA;
Benno Giesecke, Vancouver, CA;
Brian Wells, Vancouver, CA;
Tan Duc Uong, Coquitlam, CA;
Charles Joseph Schembri, Langley, CA;
Gregory A. James, Coquitlam, CA;
George Alexander Skinner, Burnaby, CA;
Benno Giesecke, Vancouver, CA;
Ballard Power Systems Inc., Burnaby, CA;
Abstract
A fuel cell system includes fuel cells forming a fuel cell stack, having a fuel passage and an oxidant passage. A purge valve is coupled to the fuel passage to exhaust contaminants, and a controller is coupled to temporarily increase the oxidant stream flow rate through the oxidant passage, and to temporarily open the fuel purge valve, if a voltage across a pair of fuel cells is less than a defined threshold voltage. In this resuscitation step, the oxidant flow rate can be temporarily increased by increasing a duty cycle of an air compressor by approximately 50% for a duration of between approximately 5 to 10 seconds. The controller can further shut down fuel cell operation if a voltage across a pair of fuel cells is less than a defined threshold voltage in an inter-resuscitation period immediately following the resuscitation step.