A pinhole determination method for a fuel cell includes steps of: blocking air supply to a fuel cell stack by a controller; measuring a cell voltage value of each of unit fuel cells of the fuel cell stack; and determining whether or not a pinhole is present by comparing the cell voltage value with an average cell voltage value.

A fuel cell system having a fuel cell using a fuel gas containing a combustible gas and an oxidant gas to generate power includes an exhaust gas route for an exhaust gas from the fuel cell to circulate, an air supplier absorbing air within the fuel cell system and supplying the air to the exhaust gas, an air supply route for the air to circulate, a merging part where the exhaust gas and the air merge, a discharge route discharging a mixed gas composed of the merged exhaust gas and the air to the atmosphere, and a combustible gas detector that detects the concentration of a combustible gas in the mixed gas. With respect to flow of the air circulating in the air supply route and the discharge route, from the upstream side, the air supplier, the merging part, and the combustible gas detector are disposed in this order.

A power supply apparatus according to an example embodiment includes an abnormal state determiner configured to determine a maximum output of a fuel cell by determining whether there is an abnormality in the fuel cell, a fuel cell controller configured to control output power of the fuel cell within the maximum output based on demand power of a load, an energy storage configured to charge with power by receiving the power from the fuel cell and supply the power to the load, a charging state determiner configured to determine a charging state of the energy storage based on a charging amount of the energy storage, and a storage controller configured to control charging and discharging of the energy storage based on a difference between the demand power of the load and the output power of the fuel cell.

According to an embodiment, a power supply control system includes a state acquirer configured to acquire states of a plurality of fuel cell systems mounted in an electric device that operates using electric power, a power acquirer configured to acquire a required amount of electric power from the electric device, and a power generation controller configured to control power generation of one or more fuel cell systems among the plurality of fuel cell systems so that the required amount of electric power acquired by the power acquirer is satisfied on the basis of the state of each of the plurality of fuel cell systems acquired by the state acquirer.

Various embodiments provide systems and methods for detecting defects in components of a fuel cell. Embodiment methods and systems for detecting a defect in an interconnect for a fuel cell system include thermally exciting the interconnect using optical radiation and/or inductive stimulation, detecting a thermal response of the interconnect, and based on the thermal response, determining the presence or absence of a defect in the interconnect, such as a lateral or through crack in the interconnect.

A fuel cell system according to the present invention comprises a control apparatus which performs performance restoration processing for a catalyst layer by decreasing the output voltage of a fuel cell to a predetermined voltage. When an oxide film formed on the catalyst layer during power generation of the fuel cell contains, in addition to a first oxide film that can be removed by decreasing the output voltage of the fuel cell to a first oxide film removal voltage, a second oxide film that can be removed by decreasing the output voltage of the fuel cell to a second oxide film removal voltage which is lower than the first oxide film removal voltage, the control apparatus estimates the amount of the second oxide film and performs performance restoration processing with a set voltage being equal to or lower than the second oxide film removal voltage only when it determines that the estimated amount exceeds a predetermined amount A.

A diagnostic system for determining the cathode gas quality of a fuel cell system has a fuel cell stack, with a diagnostic fuel cell which can be connected at the cathode side to a cathode supply line and at the anode side to an anode supply line of the fuel cell system. The diagnostic system furthermore comprises a detection unit which is configured to detect a measured value or the measured value time curve of the diagnostic fuel cell operating with the cathode gas provided via the cathode supply line and with the anode gas provided via the anode supply line. The present disclosure moreover relates to a fuel cell system having a diagnostic system, and to a corresponding method.

A control method for driving of a fuel cell is provided. The method includes determining whether power generation of the fuel cell is stopped and when the power generation of the fuel cell is stopped, monitoring voltages of multiple unit cells included in the fuel cell. A degree of defect of the unit cells is determined based on the monitored voltages of the unit cells.

An odorant for fuel gases for anion membrane fuel cells, which imparts a fuel gas with an odor, includes at least one or more substances selected from the group consisting of ammonia, trimethylamine, triethylamine, N,N-diethylmethylamine, N,N-dipropylmethylamine, N,N-dipropylethylamine, N,N-diisopropylmethylamine, N,N-diisopropylethylamine, dimethylamine, diethylamine, dipropylamine, ethylmethylamine, propylmethylamine, propylethylamine, methylamine, ethylamine and propylamine.

The objective of the present invention is to maintain the surrounding of a sample at atmospheric pressure and efficiently detect secondary electrons. In a sample chamber of a charged particle device, a sample holder (4) has: a gas introduction pipe and a gas evacuation pipe for controlling the vicinity of a sample (20) to be an atmospheric pressure environment; a charged particle passage hole (18) and a micro-orifice (18) enabling detection of secondary electrons (15) emitted from the sample (20), co-located above the sample (20); and a charged particle passage hole (19) with a hole diameter larger than the micro-orifice (18) above the sample (20) so as to be capable of actively evacuating gas during gas introduction.