JP5073448B2 - Operation method of polymer electrolyte fuel cell - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for operating a polymer electrolyte fuel cell having an electrolyte membrane / electrode structure in which a pair of electrodes are disposed on both sides of an electrolyte membrane.

  A fuel cell supplies a fuel gas (mainly hydrogen-containing gas) and an oxidant gas (mainly oxygen-containing gas) to the anode-side electrode and the cathode-side electrode and causes them to react electrochemically. It is a system that obtains electrical energy.

  For example, in a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, an electrolyte membrane / electrode structure (MEA) provided with an anode electrode and a cathode electrode on both sides of an electrolyte membrane made of a polymer ion exchange membrane is sandwiched by separators. Has a cell. This type of power generation cell is normally used as a fuel cell stack mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile, for example, by laminating a predetermined number of electrolyte membrane / electrode structures and separators.

  In this type of polymer electrolyte fuel cell, the initial power generation performance is low because the water content of the electrolyte membrane immediately after assembly is not sufficient. Therefore, usually, the aging operation of the fuel cell is performed in order to obtain a desired power generation performance after the assembly of the fuel cell.

  For example, in the method of operating a fuel cell disclosed in Patent Document 1, the utilization rate of consumed gas is set so that flooding occurs in the fuel cell when the fuel cell is preliminarily operated (aging operation). It is characterized by improving.

  However, in the above operating method, since rapid flooding is involved, the control for suppressing the deterioration of the battery performance becomes complicated, and in particular, the performance of the electrolyte membrane constituting the MEA may be adversely affected.

  Further, when a hydrocarbon material, for example, is used as the electrolyte membrane constituting the MEA instead of the fluorine-based material, the hydrophobicity is higher than that of the fluorine-based material, and water sufficiently penetrates into the electrolyte membrane. There is a problem that it takes time to make it happen.

  Therefore, in the solid polymer fuel cell aging device disclosed in Patent Document 2, a loader that consumes a load current from the polymer electrolyte fuel cell during preliminary operation, the polymer electrolyte fuel cell, Control means connected between the loader and periodically changing the magnitude of the load current with time.

  Thereby, since the magnitude | size of load current is fluctuate | varied periodically with progress of time, the penetration | invasion promotion effect of the water to MEA increases, and it is supposed that the time required for an aging driving | operation can be shortened.

JP 2003-217622 A JP 2007-66666 A

  In the above-mentioned Patent Document 2, the cathode gas is supplied to the cathode, the anode gas is supplied to the anode, and a load current whose magnitude varies periodically with the passage of time from the fuel cell stack to the loader is supplied. Aging operation has started.

However, the MEA is the first time used after assembly, it is impossible for generating power by the high current density. For this reason, it is necessary to gradually increase the amount of applied current from a low current density or shorten the holding time during load application to return to OCV (open circuit voltage).

  As a result, a considerable time is required until the power generation performance of the fuel cell is saturated, and there is a problem that it takes time for the aging operation. Moreover, during the aging operation, the cathode gas and the anode gas are consumed, and there is a problem that the amount of hydrogen used is excessive and extremely uneconomical.

  The present invention solves this type of problem, and is a solid polymer fuel cell capable of performing aging treatment satisfactorily in a short period of time while preventing hydrogen consumption as much as possible and performing economic aging. The purpose is to provide a driving method.

  The present invention relates to a method for operating a polymer electrolyte fuel cell for aging a polymer electrolyte fuel cell having an electrolyte membrane / electrode structure in which a pair of electrodes are disposed on both sides of the electrolyte membrane.

In this operation method, a step of performing water treatment by directly supplying liquid water to the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure, and after applying the water treatment , a potential is applied to the polymer electrolyte fuel cell by an external DC power source. By supplying humidified hydrogen to the other electrode side without supplying oxidant gas to one electrode side, the hydrogen is transferred to the one electrode side through the electrolyte membrane. A step of performing a hydrogen pump operation.

  The polymer electrolyte fuel cell has a fuel gas flow path for supplying a fuel gas to the other electrode and an oxidant gas flow path for supplying an oxidant gas to one electrode, and at least the fuel gas flow path It is preferable that the polymer electrolyte fuel cell is kept warm in a state where either the channel or the oxidant gas channel is filled with liquid water.

Furthermore, it is preferable to have a step of performing the power generation aging of the polymer electrolyte fuel cell at or above the maximum current density during use after operating the hydrogen pump at or above the maximum current density during use .

  Furthermore, the electrolyte membrane is preferably composed of a hydrocarbon-based electrolyte membrane.

  The liquid water is pure water and is preferably warm water of 40 ° C to 100 ° C. This is because if the temperature is lower than 40 ° C., the effect of improving the power generation performance by the temperature treatment is lowered.

  Furthermore, it is preferable to apply a negative potential to the cathode, which is one electrode, and to apply a positive potential to the anode, which is the other electrode.

  In the present invention, liquid water is directly supplied to the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure before the so-called aging step by so-called hydrogen pump operation in which a voltage is applied from the outside to move hydrogen ions in the electrolyte membrane. Water can be efficiently introduced into the membrane. Thereby, the resistance overvoltage can be effectively reduced. In addition, impurities such as residual solvents and adhesive components in the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure are removed, and a cleaning function can be provided. Furthermore, when the electrolyte membrane swells, the reaction area on the catalyst surface is effectively expanded.

  In addition, in the aging by the hydrogen pump operation that is performed after the supply of liquid water, only hydrogen with low overvoltage is involved in the reaction, and a large current (maximum current density in use) is continuously applied below the corrosion potential. Can do. Therefore, it is possible to easily suppress the performance deterioration and shorten the time. In addition, in the hydrogen pump, hydrogen transferred to one electrode side does not react with the oxidant gas. For this reason, hydrogen is not consumed during the aging process by the hydrogen pump operation, which is extremely economical.

  FIG. 1 shows a hot water treatment apparatus 12 for supplying warm water (pure water), which is liquid water, to an electrolyte membrane / electrode structure, which will be described later, in a method for operating a polymer electrolyte fuel cell 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic explanatory drawing.

  The fuel cell 10 includes, for example, an electrolyte membrane / electrode structure 20 in which a hydrocarbon-based solid polymer electrolyte membrane 14 is sandwiched between an anode-side electrode 16 and a cathode-side electrode 18, and the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure 20 is It is sandwiched between the anode side separator 22a and the cathode side separator 22b. The anode side separator 22a and the cathode side separator 22b are made of carbon plates or metal plates, and are provided with a seal member (not shown). The solid polymer electrolyte membrane 14 may be a fluorine-based membrane such as perfluorocarbon, for example.

  A fuel gas flow path 24 is formed between the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure 20 and the anode side separator 22a, and an oxidant is provided between the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure 20 and the cathode side separator 22b. A gas flow path 26 is formed. A cooling medium flow path 28 is formed between the anode side separator 22a and the cathode side separator 22b.

  The fuel cell 10 has a fuel gas inlet communication hole 30a for supplying a fuel gas such as a hydrogen-containing gas to one end side, and an oxidant gas inlet communication hole for supplying an oxidant gas such as air (oxygen-containing gas). 32a, a fuel gas outlet communication hole 30b for discharging the fuel gas, and an oxidant gas outlet communication hole 32b for discharging the oxidant gas are formed. At the other end of the fuel cell 10, a cooling medium inlet communication hole 34a for supplying a cooling medium and a cooling medium outlet communication hole 34b for discharging the cooling medium are formed.

  The hot water treatment device 12 includes a warm water supply system 36 that supplies warm water to the fuel cell 10 and a heat retaining medium supply system 38 that keeps the fuel cell 10 warm. The hot water supply system 36 includes, for example, a hot water supply pipe 40a communicating with the fuel gas inlet communication hole 30a (and / or the oxidant gas inlet communication hole 32a) and a fuel gas outlet communication hole 30b (and / or the oxidant gas outlet communication). A hot water discharge pipe 40b communicating with the hole 32b), and an open / close valve 42 is disposed in the hot water discharge pipe 40b. Hot water (pure water) maintained at a predetermined temperature, for example, 40 ° C. to 100 ° C., is supplied to the hot water supply pipe 40a.

  The heat retaining medium supply system 38 includes a circulation pipe 44 that communicates with the cooling medium inlet communication hole 34a and the cooling medium outlet communication hole 34b. A pump 46 is disposed in the circulation pipe 44, and a cooling medium (liquid or gas) maintained at a predetermined temperature, for example, 40 ° C. to 100 ° C. is circulated in the circulation pipe 44.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an aging device 50 for performing the first aging process by the hydrogen pump operation after the hot water treatment of the fuel cell 10.

  The aging device 50 includes an anode side piping system 54 that supplies humidified hydrogen to the anode side (fuel gas flow path 24 side) of the fuel cell 10, and the cathode side (oxidant gas flow path 26 side) of the fuel cell 10. A direct-current power supply 58 that applies a negative potential to the cathode side of the fuel cell 10, and a aging power source that applies a positive potential to the anode side of the fuel cell 10. And a controller 60 that controls the entire apparatus 50.

The anode side piping system 54 includes a hydrogen cylinder 62 that stores hydrogen, and the hydrogen cylinder 62 communicates with the fuel gas inlet communication hole 30 a of the fuel cell 10 via the anode supply pipe 64. The anode supply pipe 64 is provided with an on-off valve 66a and a humidifier 68 from the hydrogen cylinder 62 side to the downstream, and the humidifier 68 has an inert gas such as nitrogen gas (N ₂ gas). ) Is connected via an on-off valve 66b.

  The anode side piping system 54 includes an anode discharge piping 72 that communicates with the fuel gas outlet communication hole 30 b of the fuel cell 10. The anode discharge pipe 72 is provided with an on-off valve 66c, and both ends of a bypass line 74 are connected to the anode discharge pipe 72 and the anode supply pipe 64. The bypass line 74 is provided with an open / close valve 66d.

  The cathode side piping system 56 includes a cathode supply pipe 78, and one end of the cathode supply pipe 78 is connectable to the anode supply pipe 64 via an on-off valve 66e. The other end of the cathode supply pipe 78 communicates with the oxidant gas inlet communication hole 32 a of the fuel cell 10.

  The cathode side piping system 56 is provided with a cathode discharge piping 80 that communicates with the oxidant gas outlet communication hole 32 b of the fuel cell 10. The cathode discharge pipe 80 is connected to the upstream side of the on-off valve 66c with respect to the anode discharge pipe 72.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a power generation aging device 90 for performing the second aging process on the fuel cell 10 after the first aging process by the aging device 50. The power generation aging device 90 may be configured as a dedicated machine used for power generation aging, or may be configured to perform power generation aging by a fuel cell system incorporating the fuel cell 10 for in-vehicle use. .

  The power generation aging device 90 includes a fuel gas supply system 92 for supplying fuel gas to the fuel cell 10, an oxidant gas supply system 94 for supplying oxidant gas to the fuel cell 10, and the fuel cell 10. And an electronic load 96 to be connected.

  The fuel gas supply system 92 includes a hydrogen tank 98. Hydrogen gas is supplied from the hydrogen tank 98 to the fuel gas inlet communication hole 30a through the hydrogen supply pipe 100. The hydrogen supply pipe 100 includes a variable valve. 102a is disposed.

  The fuel gas supply system 92 has a hydrogen discharge pipe 104 that communicates with the fuel gas outlet communication hole 30 b, and a bypass line 106 is connected to the hydrogen discharge pipe 104 and the hydrogen supply pipe 100. On-off valves 108 a and 108 b are disposed in the hydrogen discharge pipe 104 and the bypass line 106.

  The oxidant gas supply system 94 includes an air pump (air compressor) 110, and an air supply pipe 112 connected to the air pump 110 is connected to the oxidant gas inlet communication hole 32a. The air supply pipe 112 is provided with a variable valve 102b.

  The oxidant gas supply system 94 includes an air discharge pipe 114 connected to the oxidant gas outlet communication hole 32 b, and a bypass line 116 is connected to the air discharge pipe 114 and the air supply pipe 112. The air discharge pipe 114 and the bypass line 116 are provided with on-off valves 108c and 108d.

  The electronic load 96 has a variable resistance function, and the resistance value can be set so that the output current of the fuel cell 10 is 0 or more than the maximum current density at the time of use. The maximum current density is a level at which the solid polymer electrolyte membrane 14 is not deteriorated by heat generation, and is a maximum of 200%, preferably 150% or less (more preferably 125%).

  The operation method by the hot water treatment device 12, the aging device 50, and the power generation aging device 90 configured as described above will be described below along the flowchart shown in FIG.

  First, as shown in FIG. 1, the fuel cell 10 is attached to the hot water treatment device 12 to perform hot water treatment (step S1). Specifically, in the hot water supply system 36, the fuel gas inlet communication hole 30a and / or the oxidant gas inlet communication hole 32a, for example, the fuel gas inlet communication hole 30a is brought to a predetermined temperature via the hot water supply pipe 40a. The heated pure water (hot water) is supplied.

  At that time, since the on-off valve 42 is closed and the hot water discharge pipe 40b is closed, the hot water is filled into the fuel gas flow path 24 from the fuel gas inlet communication hole 30a. Therefore, warm water is supplied into the fuel cell 10 before the aging treatment, and pure water which is liquid water is directly supplied to the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure 20.

  On the other hand, in the heat retaining medium supply system 38, under the action of the pump 46, the cooling medium maintained at a predetermined temperature is circulated through the circulation pipe 44 communicating with the cooling medium inlet communication hole 34 a and the cooling medium outlet communication hole 34 b. . Therefore, the cooling medium is circulated and supplied to the cooling medium flow path 28 to keep the fuel cell 10 warm.

  The time for performing the hot water treatment varies depending on the hydrophilicity of the solid polymer electrolyte membrane 14, and is set to a short time when the hydrophilicity is high, while it is set to a long time when the hydrophilicity is low. . Actually, it ranges from several hours to several tens of hours.

  After the hot water treatment is finished, the fuel cell 10 is attached to the aging device 50 as shown in FIG. In this aging device 50, before starting the hydrogen pump operation, a purge process with nitrogen gas is performed (step S2). The nitrogen cylinder 70 is provided in the anode side piping system 54, and the on-off valves 66b, 66c and 66e are opened, and the on-off valves 66a and 66d are closed.

  For this reason, the nitrogen gas led out from the nitrogen cylinder 70 is humidified through the humidifier 68 and then is divided into the anode supply pipe 64 and the cathode supply pipe 78. The humidified nitrogen gas is supplied to the fuel gas inlet communication hole 30a and the oxidant gas inlet communication hole 32a of the fuel cell 10.

  In the fuel cell 10, as shown in FIG. 1, humidified nitrogen gas is introduced into the fuel gas channel 24 and the oxidant gas channel 26. Then, the air remaining in the fuel gas channel 24 and the oxidant gas channel 26 is replaced with nitrogen gas by scavenging for a predetermined time.

  Next, the on-off valve 66b is closed and the on-off valve 66a is opened. Accordingly, hydrogen gas is led out from the hydrogen cylinder 62, and after being humidified by the humidifier 68, the hydrogen gas is divided into the anode supply pipe 64 and the cathode supply pipe 78. Therefore, in the fuel cell 10, the fuel gas channel 24 and the oxidant gas channel 26 are scavenged with hydrogen gas (step S3).

  Furthermore, it progresses to step S4 and the 1st aging process by what is called a hydrogen pump driving | operation is started. In this hydrogen pump operation, as shown in FIG. 2, a positive potential is applied to the anode side (anode side electrode 16) and a negative potential is applied to the cathode side (cathode side electrode 18). .

  In this state, in the cathode side piping system 56, the on-off valve 66e is closed. On the other hand, in the anode side piping system 54, the on-off valves 66b and 66d are closed and the on-off valves 66a and 66c are opened. Accordingly, hydrogen gas is supplied from the hydrogen cylinder 62 to the anode supply pipe 64, and this hydrogen gas is humidified by the humidifier 68 and then passes through the fuel gas inlet communication hole 30 a of the fuel cell 10 to the fuel gas flow path 24. Supplied.

Here, in the fuel cell 10, a positive electrode potential is applied to the anode side via the DC power source 58, and a negative electrode potential is applied to the cathode side. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the reaction of H ₂ → 2H ⁺ + 2e ⁻ occurs in the anode side electrode 16, and hydrogen ions (H ⁺ ) permeate the solid polymer electrolyte membrane 14 and become the cathode side electrode 18. Move to. The cathode side electrode 18 causes a reaction of 2H ⁺ + 2e ⁻ → H ₂ .

  Accordingly, protons (hydrogen ions) move from the anode side electrode 16 to the cathode side electrode 18 and entrained water is supplied to the solid polymer electrolyte membrane 14, and the water content of the solid polymer electrolyte membrane 14 increases. .

  The unreacted portion of the hydrogen gas supplied to the fuel gas flow path 24 of the fuel cell 10 is discharged from the fuel gas outlet communication hole 30b to the anode discharge pipe 72. On the other hand, the hydrogen gas in the oxidant gas passage 26 is discharged from the cathode discharge pipe 80 to the anode discharge pipe 72 through the oxidant gas passage 26 through the oxidant gas outlet communication hole 32b.

  In this case, in the above-described hydrogen pump operation, the stoichiometry of hydrogen introduced from the hydrogen cylinder 62 is set to be relatively high, and the amount of moisture introduced can be increased.

  Moreover, the current density applied by the DC power source 58 is set to the maximum current density during use. This is because in the hydrogen pump operation, only hydrogen with a small overvoltage is involved in the reaction, so that a large current can be drawn at the early stage of aging. This shortens the aging time.

  Further, since the cathode side electrode 18 side is not affected by the concentration overvoltage due to the diffusion resistance of the reaction gas, it is possible to reduce deterioration due to local reaction concentration on the electrode surface and the distribution of the aging state. Therefore, the electrode surface can be aged uniformly.

  Furthermore, in the case of aging by normal power generation, since a constant current cannot be maintained during aging, the aging is performed by cycling the load current. For this reason, the high potential cycle is repeated, which may induce corrosion of the catalyst alone.

  On the other hand, in aging by hydrogen pump operation, since a large current can be continuously applied at a corrosion potential or lower, it is possible to easily suppress performance deterioration and shorten the aging time. At that time, in the hydrogen pump operation, the hydrogen transferred to the cathode side electrode 18 does not react with the oxidant gas and is discharged to the anode discharge pipe 72 as hydrogen gas. Thereby, there is an effect that hydrogen is not consumed and is extremely economical.

  Further, in the aging by the hydrogen pump operation, the heat generation amount due to the overvoltage loss is reduced, so that the temperature degradation of the solid polymer electrolyte membrane 14 can be effectively suppressed.

  By the way, there is a possibility that the catalyst activity cannot be sufficiently extracted by aging only by the hydrogen pump operation. Therefore, in this embodiment, the 2nd aging process by power generation aging is performed after the 1st aging process by hydrogen pump operation (refer to Step S5 and Drawing 6).

  First, as shown in FIG. 3, the fuel cell 10 after the first aging process is attached to the power generation aging device 90. Therefore, the hydrogen tank 98 constituting the fuel gas supply system 92 supplies the fuel gas to the fuel gas inlet communication hole 30a via the hydrogen supply pipe 100. On the other hand, air is supplied from the air supply pipe 112 to the oxidant gas inlet communication hole 32 a via the air pump 110 constituting the oxidant gas supply system 94.

  For this reason, hydrogen gas is supplied to the fuel gas passage 24 and air is supplied to the oxidant gas passage 26, and an electrochemical reaction is generated by the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure 20. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 7, protons (hydrogen ions) generated at the anode side electrode 16 pass through the solid polymer electrolyte membrane 14 and move to the cathode side electrode 18. Water is produced.

  Therefore, power generation by the fuel cell 10 is started, and the current output from the fuel cell 10 via the electronic load 96 is controlled to increase or decrease as shown in FIG. Thus, power generation aging is performed. For example, when a predetermined time elapses (YES in step S6), the aging operation of the fuel cell 10 is completed.

  Thus, in the present embodiment, liquid water is directly supplied to the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure 20 constituting the fuel cell 10 via the hot water treatment device 12 before the aging process by the hydrogen pump operation by the aging device 50. The process is being performed. For this reason, water can be efficiently introduced into the solid polymer electrolyte membrane 14, and it is possible to effectively reduce the resistance overvoltage and to effectively shorten the time required for aging.

  Moreover, impurities such as residual solvent and adhesive components in the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure 20 are removed, and a cleaning function can be obtained. Furthermore, there is an advantage that the reaction region on the catalyst surface is effectively expanded by swelling the solid polymer electrolyte membrane 14.

  In addition, the aging process of the fuel cell 10 subjected to the hot water process is first performed by a first aging process by a hydrogen pump operation and a second aging process by power generation aging.

  In the aging by the hydrogen pump operation, water is surely drawn into the proton channel by applying a large current, and uniform aging treatment is performed in the electrode surface by reducing the overvoltage.

  In addition, since the catalyst of the cathode side electrode 18 is reduced with hydrogen, the oxide film is removed and the bonding property with the catalyst interface is improved. In addition, there is an advantage that the exchange of protons can be promoted by improving the bondability between the solid polymer electrolyte membrane 14 and the electrolyte interface in the catalyst layer.

  By performing power generation aging after performing aging by this hydrogen pump operation, this power generation aging enables high-load power generation. For this reason, it is not necessary to gradually increase the output current from a low current as in the case of performing only the conventional power generation aging, and the time until the aging is completed is shortened at once.

  As a result, the consumption of hydrogen can be prevented as much as possible, an economic aging process can be performed, and the catalyst activity of the fuel cell 10 can be satisfactorily brought out.

  FIG. 8 shows the present embodiment in which aging only by hot water treatment, aging only by hydrogen pump operation, aging combining hot water treatment and hydrogen pump operation, and combination of hot water treatment, hydrogen pump operation and power generation aging, It is the result of having compared the power generation performance in. Thereby, in this embodiment, the result that the catalyst activity of the fuel cell 10 was able to be drawn out was obtained.

  In the present embodiment, a step of supplying hot water to the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure 20 through the hot water treatment device 12 is performed before the aging step by the hydrogen pump operation by the aging device 50. It is not limited. For example, hot water may be supplied to the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure 20 by immersing the entire fuel cell 10 in a hot water tank. Further, instead of the heat retaining medium supply system 38 for keeping the fuel cell 10 warm, a heat retaining furnace for keeping the whole fuel cell 10 warm may be used.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, a positive electrode potential is applied to the anode side, a negative electrode potential is applied to the cathode side, and humidification is applied to the anode side without supplying an oxidant gas to the cathode side. The supplied hydrogen is supplied to operate the hydrogen pump. On the other hand, a positive electrode potential was applied to the cathode side, a negative electrode potential was applied to the anode side, and the cathode side was humidified without supplying an oxidant gas to the anode side. Hydrogen pump operation can also be performed by supplying hydrogen.

1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of a hot water treatment apparatus for supplying warm water, which is liquid water, to an electrolyte membrane / electrode structure in a method for operating a polymer electrolyte fuel cell according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic block diagram of the aging apparatus for performing the 1st aging process by a hydrogen pump driving | operation. It is a schematic block diagram of the electric power generation aging apparatus for performing a 2nd aging process with respect to the said fuel cell. It is a flowchart explaining the said driving | running method. It is explanatory drawing of the aging by a hydrogen pump driving | operation. It is explanatory drawing of the said operating method. It is explanatory drawing of electric power generation aging. It is comparison explanatory drawing of the performance by various aging.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Fuel cell 12 ... Hot water treatment apparatus 14 ... Solid polymer electrolyte membrane 16 ... Anode side electrode 18 ... Cathode side electrode 20 ... Electrolyte membrane and electrode structure 24 ... Fuel gas flow path 26 ... Oxidant gas flow path 28 ... Cooling Medium flow path 30a ... Fuel gas inlet communication hole 30b ... Fuel gas outlet communication hole 32a ... Oxidant gas inlet communication hole 32b ... Oxidant gas outlet communication hole 34a ... Cooling medium inlet communication hole 34b ... Cooling medium outlet communication hole 36 ... Hot water Supply system 38 ... Insulation medium supply system 40a ... Warm water supply pipe 40b ... Hot water discharge pipe 44 ... Circulation pipe 46 ... Pump 50 ... Aging device 54 ... Anode side pipe system 56 ... Cathode side pipe system 58 ... DC power supply 60 ... Controller 62 ... Hydrogen cylinder 64 ... anode supply pipe 68 ... humidifier 70 ... nitrogen cylinder 72 ... anode discharge pipe 78 ... cathode supply pipe 80 ... cathode 90 ... Electric power aging device 92 ... Fuel gas supply system 94 ... Oxidant gas supply system 96 ... Electronic load 98 ... Hydrogen tank 100 ... Hydrogen supply pipe 104 ... Hydrogen discharge pipe 110 ... Air pump 112 ... Air supply pipe 114 ... Air discharge pipe

Claims (6)

A method for operating a polymer electrolyte fuel cell for aging a polymer electrolyte fuel cell having an electrolyte membrane / electrode structure in which a pair of electrodes are disposed on both sides of the electrolyte membrane,
A step of performing water treatment by directly supplying liquid water to the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure;
After the water treatment, hydrogen is humidified on the other electrode side without supplying an oxidant gas to one electrode side with a potential applied to the polymer electrolyte fuel cell by an external DC power source. Performing a hydrogen pump operation in which the hydrogen passes through the electrolyte membrane and is transferred to the one electrode side,
A method for operating a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, comprising: 2. The operation method according to claim 1, wherein the polymer electrolyte fuel cell is formed on one of a pair of separators sandwiching the electrolyte membrane / electrode structure and supplies fuel gas to the other electrode. A channel, and an oxidant gas passage formed in the remaining one separator and supplying an oxidant gas to the one electrode,
When the water treatment is performed, the solid polymer fuel cell is kept warm with at least one of the fuel gas channel and the oxidant gas channel filled with the liquid water. Polymer fuel cell operation method. 3. The operation method according to claim 1, wherein after the hydrogen pump operation is operated at a maximum current density during use or not, power generation aging of the polymer electrolyte fuel cell is performed at or above a maximum current density during use. A method for operating a polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising a step.   The operation method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the electrolyte membrane is composed of a hydrocarbon-based electrolyte membrane.   The operation method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the liquid water is pure water, and is warm water at 40 ° C to 100 ° C.   6. The operation method according to claim 1, wherein a negative electrode potential is applied to the cathode that is the one electrode and a positive electrode potential is applied to the anode that is the other electrode. A method for operating a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, comprising:

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