Claims
- 1. A method of operating a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising:supplying an oxidant reactant stream to the cathode electrode of said fuel cell; supplying a fuel reactant stream to the anode electrode of said fuel cell; monitoring a temperature parameter indicative of the operating temperature of said fuel cell; and when said temperature parameter is below a predetermined threshold value, reactant starving at least a portion of one of said electrodes.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said reactant starving is intermittent.
- 3. The method of claim 1 wherein said reactant starving comprises interrupting the supply of one of said reactant streams to said respective fuel cell electrodes.
- 4. The method of claim 3 wherein said method comprises intermittently interrupting the supply of one of said reactant streams to said fuel cell electrodes.
- 5. The method of claim 3 wherein said one of said reactant streams is said fuel reactant stream.
- 6. The method of claim 3 wherein said one of said reactant streams is said oxidant reactant stream.
- 7. The method of claim 3 wherein said fuel cell is one of a plurality of fuel cells arranged in a fuel cell stack.
- 8. The method of claim 7 wherein said supply of one of said reactant streams to each of said plurality of fuel cells is not simultaneously interrupted.
- 9. The method of claim 1 wherein said method comprises connecting a transient electrical load to draw electrical power from said fuel cell.
- 10. The method of claim 9 wherein said method comprises intermittently connecting a transient electrical load to draw electrical power from said fuel cell.
- 11. The method of claim 9 wherein the rates of supply of said reactants to said fuel cell electrodes are not increased in response to the connection of said transient load.
- 12. The method of claim 9 wherein said fuel cell is one of a plurality of fuel cells arranged in a fuel cell stack, and the connection of said transient load to draw power from each one of said plurality of fuel cells is not simultaneous.
- 13. The method of claim 1 wherein said reactant streams are essentially free of electrocatalyst poisons.
- 14. The method of claim 13 wherein said fuel reactant stream is substantially pure hydrogen.
- 15. The method of claim 2 wherein said fuel cell is one of a plurality of fuel cells arranged in a fuel cell stack and said reactant starving causes a voltage reversal to occur in at least one of said plurality of fuel cells.
- 16. The method of claim 9 wherein said fuel cell is one of a plurality of fuel cells arranged in a fuel cell stack and said reactant starving causes a voltage reversal to occur in at least one of said plurality of fuel cells.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)
This application is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/345,667, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,329,089, filed Jun. 30, 1999 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Increasing the Temperature of a Fuel Cell”. The '667 application is in turn a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/998,133, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,448, filed Dec. 23, 1997 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Operating an Electrochemical Fuel Cell With Periodic Fuel Starvation At The Anode”. The '667 application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/344,763, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,472,090 filed Jun. 25, 1999, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Operating an Electrochemical Fuel Cell With Periodic Reactant Starvation”. The '667, '133 and '763 applications are each incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
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Continuation in Parts (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08/998133 |
Dec 1997 |
US |
Child |
09/345667 |
|
US |
Parent |
09/344763 |
Jun 1999 |
US |
Child |
08/998133 |
|
US |