A method for starting the normal operation of an electrical system with a fuel cell and a transducer from a stop mode is disclosed. The transducer absorbs the electrical power of the fuel cell, in which at least one reactant supply of the fuel cell was interrupted, where the interrupted reactant supply is resumed from a restart signal, and where a fuel cell voltage is prescribed and then regulated by the transducer. The prescribed fuel cell voltage is prescribed in a way that an electrical unloaded fuel cell supplied with reactants will exceed the prescribed fuel cell voltage in every case, and the current of the transducer necessary for maintaining the prescribed fuel cell voltage is measured, where the normal operation is released as of a prescribed current necessary to that effect.

A hydrogen purging device for a fuel cell system includes a humidifier that humidifies dry air supplied from an air blower, using moist air discharged from a cathode of a stack and supplies the humidified air to the cathode. A water trap and a hydrogen recirculation blower are sequentially connected to an outlet of an anode, wherein a hydrogen outlet of the water trap and an inlet of the humidifier are connected by a cathode-hydrogen purging line for purging hydrogen to the cathode so that the hydrogen discharged from the anode of the fuel stack is purged to the cathode during idling or during normal driving.

To provide a fuel cell system that reduces electric power purchased from a system even when load changes, disclosed is a method of controlling a fuel cell system including an electric generator and an electric power control device that controls the electric generator. The electric power control device performs a procedure including: the monitoring step of monitoring a power consumption of a load apparatus to which the fuel cell system supplies electric power; the temperature acquisition step of acquiring a temperature in the electric generator; the gas fill amount acquisition step of acquiring an amount of gas filled in the electric generator; and the control step of controlling a change rate of an output voltage of the electric generator based on the temperature in the electric generator and the amount of gas filled in the electric generator in response to an increase in the power consumption.

The following disclosure relates to methods of identifying defects (e.g., short circuits) in a membrane of an electrolytic cell. The following disclosure further relates to methods of repairing such a defect in the membrane of the electrolytic cell, particularly without having to disassemble the membrane from adjacent components of the electrolytic cell.

A cell voltage control unit is provided on a lower surface of a stack body of a fuel cell stack. The cell voltage control unit is connected to cell voltage terminals for monitoring cell voltage. A protection member is provided on a second end plate where the cell voltage control unit is provided. The protection member has protrusions protruding from both sides of the protection member in a horizontal direction, and a body portion having a vertically elongated shape so as to extend to a front face of the cell voltage control unit.

A fuel cell system includes; a fuel cell which generates electricity by using a fuel gas and an oxidant gas as reaction gases; current control means which controls current of a fuel cell; voltage control means which controls voltage of the fuel cell; and heat value control means which calculates a heat value required by the fuel cell system and decides a target current value of the current control means and a target voltage value of the voltage control means so as to generate the calculated necessary heat amount, thereby controlling the heat value. Thus, it is possible to supply a heat required for the fuel cell system without increasing the size of the fuel cell system.

A method of controlling a fuel cell system, a method of controlling a fuel cell automobile, and a fuel cell automobile are provided. When the SOC of a battery gets closer to an upper limit, there is a risk that overcharging of the battery may occur. In this case, using a BAT converter, inverter terminal voltage is stepped up to FC open circuit voltage or higher, whereby a step-up type FC converter is placed in an interruption state.

A fuel cell stack hydrogen starvation detection device, a fuel cell system and a method of operating a fuel cell stack to protect it from hydrogen starvation conditions. In one particular form, the fuel cell system includes a stack of fuel cells, a controller and a detection device made up of one or more sensors that can compare a reference signal corresponding to the presence of substantially pure hydrogen to a signal that corresponds to a local hydrogen value within a single fuel cell within the stack or across multiple fuel cells within the stack. In this way, the detection device promptly provides indicia of a hydrogen starvation condition within the cell or stack without the need for conventional cell voltage monitoring. The detected hydrogen starvation condition may be presented as a warning signal to alert a user that such a condition may be present, as well as to the controller for modification of the stack operation.

The invention relates to a method (1000) for controlling a fuel cell (1) comprising an anode (11) and a cathode (12), wherein the method has at least the following steps: receiving (100) one pressure value (p.sub.i) for each gas component (2a, 2b, 2c, 2d) relevant during the operation of the fuel cell and present in the anode chamber (110) or in the cathode chamber (120), specifying (200) a current (I) for actuating the fuel cell (1), calculating (300) a target voltage (Us) based on the specified current (I) using the received pressure values (p.sub.i), wherein the calculation is based on a numerical conversion of a specified relationship which converts the target voltage (Us) into the specified current (I), and the numerical conversion is based on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, but is free of numerical logarithm calculations, actuating (400) the fuel cell (1) at the specified current (I), measuring (500) the resulting voltage (U) at the fuel cell (1), and comparing (600) the measured voltage (U) with the calculated target voltage (Us).

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell, a control device, an auxiliary power source serving as a first power storage device, and a receiving power storage device serving as a second power storage device. Under control of the control device, power output from the fuel cell is supplied to an external load and is also charged to the auxiliary power source, in a state in which supply of liquid fuel to the fuel cell is being carried out. Further, in addition to the power output from the fuel cell, post-stoppage power recovered by the receiving power storage device is discharged and supplied to the external load. Power charged in the auxiliary power source is discharged and supplied to the external load in a state in which supply of liquid fuel to the fuel cell is stopped.