Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analyzer and method of using thereof

• US 9,461,319 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2014
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bloom Energy Corporation
• Original Assignee: Bloom Energy Corporation
• Inventors: Sudhan, Karthick, Nawathe, Amit, Srivastava, Rohit, Sharif, Mohamed, Dudhmande, Abhishek, Bekkedahl, Timothy
• Primary Examiner(s): Ryan, Patrick
• Assistant Examiner(s): MCCONNELL, WYATT P
• Application Number:
  US14/186,642
• Publication Number:
  US 20150244011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 956 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04559 of fuel cell stacks
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04589 of fuel cell stacks
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04649 of fuel cell stacks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/50 Fuel cells

Abstract

Systems, methods, and devices of the various embodiments provide a hardware and software architecture enabling electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (“EIS”) to be performed on multiple electrochemical devices, such as fuel cells, at the same time without human interaction with the electrochemical devices. In an embodiment, a matrix switch may connect each cell of a fuel cell stack individually to an EIS analyzer enabling EIS to be performed on any fuel cell in the fuel cell stack. In a further embodiment, the EIS analyzer may be a multi-channel EIS analyzer, and the combination of the matrix switch and multi-channel EIS analyzer may enable EIS to be performed on multiple fuel cells simultaneously.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an electrochemical device having two or more cells;

an electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (“

EIS”

) analyzer having two or more channel inputs;

a matrix switch connected between the electrochemical device and the EIS analyzer, wherein the matrix switch is controllable to electrically connect each of the two or more channel inputs of the EIS analyzer to each of the two or more cells of the electrochemical device; and

a processor connected to the EIS analyzer and the matrix switch, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations comprising;

controlling the matrix switch to align each of plurality of subsets of a plurality of the two or more cells of the electrochemical device for concurrent impedance testing with a respective one of the two or more channel inputs of the EIS analyzer;

concurrently injecting a test waveform into each of the plurality of aligned subsets of the plurality of the two or more cells of the electrochemical device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising:

selecting the plurality of the two or more cells of the electrochemical device for concurrent impedance testing;

selecting one of the two or more channel inputs of the EIS analyzer for each of the plurality of subsets of the plurality of the two or more cells for concurrent impedance testing;

controlling the EIS analyzer to receive a waveform on each of the selected one of the two or more channel inputs of the EIS analyzer from each of the aligned subsets of the plurality of the two or more cells of the electrochemical device for concurrent impedance testing via the matrix switch in response to the injected test waveform; and

monitoring an impedance response of each of the aligned subsets of the plurality of the two or more cells of the electrochemical device in response to the injected test waveform.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the electrochemical device having two or more cells is a fuel cell stack segment having two or more fuel cells.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein:

the fuel cell stack segment having two or more fuel cells is a fuel cell stack having twenty five fuel cells;

the EIS analyzer having two or more channels is an EIS analyzer having five channels; and

the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that selecting the plurality of the two or more cells of the fuel cell stack segment for concurrent impedance testing comprises selecting five cells of the fuel cell stack segment for concurrent impedance testing.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the test waveform is a frequency range sweep waveform.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the test waveform is configured to test a particular region of frequency.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the particular region of frequency is 10 KHz, 8 KHz, 6 KHz, 4 KHz, 3 KHz, 2 KHz, or 1 KHz.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations further comprising determining a characteristic of each of the aligned selected plurality of the two or more cells of the fuel cell stack segment based at least in part on the impedance response of each of the aligned selected plurality of the two or more cells of the fuel cell stack segment.

9. The system of claim 3, further comprising a load bank connected to the processor and configured to monitor the current or voltage output of the fuel cell stack segment,

wherein the processor is configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations such that monitoring an impedance response of each of the aligned subsets of the plurality of the two or more cells of the fuel cell stack segment in response to the injected test waveform comprises monitoring an impedance response of each of the aligned subsets of the plurality of the two or more cells of the fuel cell stack segment in response to the injected test waveform based at least in part on a current or a voltage measurement received from the load bank.

10. A method, comprising:

selecting a plurality of cells of an electrochemical device for concurrent impedance testing of at least a subset of the selected plurality of cells;

selecting a channel input of an electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (“

EIS”

) analyzer from a plurality of channel inputs for each of a plurality of subsets of the selected plurality of cells for concurrent impedance testing;

controlling a matrix switch connected between the electrochemical device and the EIS analyzer to align each of the plurality of subsets of the selected plurality of cells of the electrochemical device for concurrent impedance testing with its respective selected channel input of the EIS analyzer;

concurrently injecting a test waveform into each of the plurality of aligned subsets of the selected plurality of cells of the electrochemical device;

controlling the EIS analyzer to receive a waveform on the selected channel input of the EIS analyzer from each of the plurality of aligned subsets of the selected plurality of cells of the electrochemical device for concurrent impedance testing via the matrix switch in response to the injected test waveform; and

monitoring an impedance response of each of the plurality of aligned subsets of the selected plurality of the cells of the electrochemical device in response to the injected test waveform.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of subsets of the selected plurality of the cells comprises a single fuel cell.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the electrochemical device is a fuel cell stack segment.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the fuel cell stack segment is a fuel cell stack having twenty five fuel cells;

the EIS analyzer is an EIS analyzer having five channels; and

selecting a plurality of cells for concurrent impedance testing comprises selecting five cells of the fuel cell stack for concurrent impedance testing.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the test waveform is a frequency range sweep waveform.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the test waveform is configured to test a particular region of frequency.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the particular region of frequency is 10 KHz, 8 KHz, 6 KHz, 4 KHz, 3 KHz, 2 KHz, or 1 KHz.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein monitoring an impedance response of each of the plurality of aligned subsets of the selected plurality of the cells of the fuel cell stack segment in response to the injected test waveform comprises monitoring an impedance response of each of the plurality of aligned subsets of the selected plurality of the cells of the fuel cell stack segment in response to the injected test waveform based at least in part on a current or a voltage measurement received from a load bank configured to monitor the current or voltage output of the fuel cell stack.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining a characteristic of each of the plurality of aligned subsets of the selected plurality of cells of the fuel cell stack segment based at least in part on the impedance response of each of the plurality of aligned subsets of the selected plurality of cells of the fuel cell stack segment.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising adjusting a setting of a fuel cell system containing the fuel cell stack segment based on the step of determining the characteristic.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the step of adjusting the setting of the fuel cell system comprises at least one of changing a fuel flow rate into the fuel cell system, changing an air flow rate into the fuel cell system, changing an amount of current drawn from the fuel cell system, changing an amount of water provided into a fuel inlet stream, or shutting off at least part of the fuel cell system for service or replacement.