Fuel Cell Purging Coordination for Power Conservation

The patent merges the purging operations of multiple fuel cell stacks into a single coordinated action. When any stack requires purging, all stacks are purged simultaneously by opening the high-pressure valve once, rather than opening/closing the valve separately for each stack. This combining approach maintains purging effectiveness for all stacks while significantly reducing the number of valve operations and associated power consumption.

The control unit determines the purging requirements of all fuel cell stacks before executing the purging operation. By assessing the internal humidity or purging necessity of each stack in advance and then executing a single coordinated purging action, the system avoids repeated valve operations. This preliminary assessment approach ensures that purging is performed effectively on all stacks that need it while minimizing power consumption.

The patent combines multiple individual purging operations into a single system-wide purging action. Instead of opening and closing the high-pressure valve separately for each fuel cell stack, the system executes one purging operation that benefits all stacks simultaneously. This merging of operations drastically reduces the number of valve actuations, thereby conserving activation power while maintaining adequate purging performance across all stacks.

The patent applies partial action by executing purging on all fuel cell stacks even when only one or a few stacks actually require it. While this may seem excessive for individual stacks, it is economically justified because it avoids the repeated valve operations that would consume activation power, and the additional purging on stacks that don't need it causes no harm.