Patent ID: 8663854

Claim:
A method for moistening and/or tempering at least one fuel cell in a fuel cell system, the fuel cell having an anode, a cathode, a membrane element, two electrode chambers disposed in the fuel cell which include an anode chamber and a cathode chamber, educts flowing respectively into the anode chamber and into the cathode chamber via a respective incoming stream, and at least one compensation region being disposed on an end of the membrane element, which compensation region contains a water-permeable part which moistens and/or tempers at least one of the incoming streams, and wherein a gas diffusion layer is disposed only on a side of the water-permeable part pointing toward the cathode chamber and/or the anode chamber, the method includes the following steps: inflow of the educts, which are contained in the incoming streams, into the fuel cell; electrochemical reaction of the educts, so that water is generated; diffusion of the water from a first of the electrode chambers through the gas diffusion layer of the compensation region and the membrane element into a second of the electrode chambers, and/or conduction of an amount of heat through the compensation region between the electrode chambers, so that the incoming stream of the second electrode chamber is moistened and/or tempered.