APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING REACTANT PURITY

摘要

Fuel cell apparatus 10 configured to determine reactant purity, such as hydrogen 5. The hydrogen can be refined via a purifier 26 from a hydrogen source 5. The apparatus comprises; a first fuel cell 11 configured to generate electrical current from the electrochemical reaction between two reactants, with a first reactant inlet 13 configured to receive a test reactant comprising one of the two reactants from a first reactant source. The first cell 11 may be a reference cell and may also comprise a number of individual fuel cells located in a series connected configuration as a reference fuel stack 11. A second fuel cell 12 may be a test fuel cell which is configured to generate electrical current from the electrochemical reaction between the two reactants, having a second reactant inlet 14 configured to receive the test reactant from a second reactant source. The second fuel cell 12 may also comprise a number of individual fuel cells in a test fuel cell stack. A controller 20 is configured to apply an electrical load to each fuel cell11,12 and determine an electrical output 17,18 difference, ODt, between an electrical output of the first fuel cell 17 and an electrical output of the second fuel cell 18, and determine a difference between a predicted output difference ODt-1 and the determined electrical output difference. The controller is also configured to provide a purity output indicative of the test reactant purity at least based on the difference between the predicted and determined output difference.