POWER PLANT BASED ON FUEL ELEMENTS AND POWER PLANT CONTROL METHOD Russian patent published in 2009 - IPC H01M8/04 H01M16/00 

FIELD: electricity.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to electrical engineering, to the plants for direct conversion of chemical energy into electrical energy. The invention may be used for developing stand-alone power supplies operating within the wide power ranges. According to the invention the power plant contains a set of fuel elements, hydrogen generator, voltage transducer, control valve and power plant operation control system. Voltage measuring inputs of the system are connected to output terminals of fuel elements set and voltage transducer. The control output is coupled with control input of the control valve. The hydrogen generator output is connected with hydrogen cavity input of the fuel element set. The hydrogen cavity output is connected with control valve implemented with two actuation pressure levels P₁ and P₂, where P₂>P₁. The first level P₁ corresponds to hydrogen cavity blow-down mode at an excess flow rate of hydrogen, while emergency hydrogen relief mode corresponds to the second level P₂, when hydrogen generator fails or during transients occurring during operating modes. The power plant operation control system includes control valve control unit. There is a fan installed at hydrogen cavity inlet in the fuel element set. The fan inputs are connected with control system outputs. The control system also includes fan control unit. The voltage transducer may be provided with on/off input, whereas the power plant control system includes also voltage transducer switching control unit. The power plant control method provides for control valve switching to "Blow-down" mode with actuation pressure P_1, when voltage is decreased below U₂ level at power plant output. As a result the hydrogen cavity is blown-down at the excess hydrogen flow rate. If voltage at power plant output is above U₁ level, the control valve is switched to "Operation" mode with actuation pressure P₂ and hydrogen is urgently relieved when hydrogen generator fails or during transients. In addition, P₂>P_1.

EFFECT: improvement of volt-ampere characteristics of power plant.

6 cl, 1 dwg