Appeal 2007-1259
Application 10/054,213
5. Claim 2 is as follows:
A method for removing carbon monoxide from an
anode catalyst of a fuel cell comprising the step of
impressing at least one positive voltage pulse on
the anode, wherein the fuel cell has a voltage that
does not change sign and at most becomes zero so
that U (fuel cell) =U (cathode) – U(anode) ≥ 0.
6. Stimming does not separately argue any of the claims on appeal and
thus we consider the rejection of those claims to stand or fall with the
rejection of claim 1.
7. Wilkinson teaches a method and apparatus for operating an
electromechanical fuel cell with periodic momentary fuel starvation
at the anode. (Wilkinson at 1:8-12).
8. According to Wilkinson “when the method is applied, the fuel cell
performance after the momentary starvation is improved…due to the
oxidation of electrocatalyst poisons [such as CO], which is facilitated
as the anode potential increases as occurs during fuel starvation.”
(Wilkinson at 3:3-11).
9. In Wilkinson, fuel starvation is accomplished by: (1) “periodically
interrupting the supply of the fuel stream to the fuel cell anode”
(Wilkinson at 3:18-24), (2) “periodically introducing pulses of a
substantially fuel-free fluid into the fuel stream upstream of the fuel
cell anode” (Wilkinson at 3:36-40), or (3) “periodically connecting a
transient electrical load to draw electrical power from the fuel cell”
(Wilkinson at 4:23-27).
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