One of the most critical balance-of-plant in a fuel cell system is the Hydrogen gas supply and purge solenoid valves. The ideal valve should allow high gas flowrate with minimal pressure drop, require very little power consumption, and be as small and lightweight as possible. Spectronik has been working with The Lee Company – the leading innovator in miniature precision fluid control, to develop a product that can match these exact requirements.

Here are 3 reasons why the Highflow Miniature Valve Module (product code HFV-3X-55) is arguably the best solenoid valve in the market for portable Hydrogen fuel cell applications:

1. Ultra-lightweight and flexible port options

The Highflow Miniature Valve Module is a super lightweight device comprising 3 Normally-Closed solenoid valves in parallel and mounted in an anodized Aluminum manifold. It is extremely compact and weighs approximately just 55g. You can choose various gas inlet and outlet port types that suit your application, or connect your own to the G1/8 threads on the manifold.

2. High flowrate with no pressure drop and fast response time

The Highflow Miniature Valve Module is rated for 55 slpm Hydrogen gas flow. It means that just one single module can support the continuous Hydrogen consumption requirement of a 4kW fuel cell! The module achieves this high flowrate with almost no pressure drop across the inlet and outlet. This allows you to provide optimal Hydrogen gas delivery pressure to your fuel cell at all times. These valves are also ultra-fast with response time of around 10ms and highly durable with a rated on/off lifetime of more than 10 million cycles.

3. Extremely low power consumption with spike-and-hold board

The Highflow Miniature Valve Module requires just 1W of power! This is achieved by providing a momentary 12V spike voltage to dislodge the blocking piston inside the solenoid valves and then a much lower 3.5V to hold the piston at the open position. If you do not wish to design the Spike-and-hold circuit yourself, good news! You can just get the accompanying Spike-and-hold board from Spectronik. Each Spike-and-hold board (product code SNH-12-30-35) can support up to 4 Highflow Miniature Valve Modules combined in parallel should you need more flow.