Nissan Motor Company Limited

Dana Canada Corporation

Akihiro Sakakida

Hiroshi Tanaka

Junichi Hasegawa

Ken Nakayama

Yoshinori Nakano

Satoshi Okano

Kazuhiro Kageyama

Akihiro Asai

Tsutomu Yamazaki

Mikiya Shinohara

Tadashi Shoji

Hisashi Niioka

Kotaro Akashi

Manaf Hasan

Masahiro Toriumi

Shiro Tanaka

Takayoshi Nabeta

Douglas Vanderwees

Mark Britton

Craig Hogg

Nobuo Sakatsume

A fuel cell system is described that enables discharge of moisture generated by the fuel cell system based on pressure differences between components of the fuel cell system. The fuel cell system includes a fuel cell that discharges oxidant offgas via a cathode discharge pipe and discharges fuel offgas and moisture to an anode drain opening that in turn discharges the fuel offgas and the moisture to a gas-liquid separator via an anode drainpipe. A throttle valve establishes a pressure difference downstream within the anode drainpipe to enable movement of the fuel offgas and the moisture from the anode drain opening to a lower pressure area of the gas-liquid separator. In addition, the pressure difference enables the fuel offgas to flow from the gas-liquid separator to the cathode discharge pipe through the throttle valve.

Fuel cell system

A gas/liquid separator is provided in which separation performance for fluid into gas and liquid is enhanced. A gas/liquid separator includes a body which separates a circulation gas into water and hydrogen gas in a separating space, a supply port from which the circulation gas flows into the inner space, the supply port being provided on the side wall surface forming the separating space, and a discharge port through which the separated hydrogen gas flows out of the separating space, the discharge port being provided on the side wall surface. In this case, the discharge port is provided above the supply port.

Gas/liquid separator

Disclosed is a fuel cell system provided with a fuel cell (), a water tank () which stores water to be supplied to the fuel cell, and a heating device () which defrosts the water inside the tank during activation of the fuel cell. The fuel cell system has a switch () which signals activation of the fuel cell; at least one temperature sensor () which detects a temperature inside the water tank; a pump () which conveys water from the water tank to the fuel cell; a heater () which warms the pump; and a controller (). The controller () is programmed to read a start temperature from said at least one temperature sensor () upon reception of a signal from the switch (); calculate on the basis of the read start temperature a first warm-up period (tw) required for the water inside the water tank () to reach a predetermined temperature (Tw) greater than zero degrees centigrade; calculate on the basis of the read start temperature a second warm-up period (tH) required to defrost ice inside the pump () using the heater; set a start time (t) for warm-up of the pump () using the heater on the basis of a difference (Dt) between the first warm-up period (tw) and the second warm-up period (tH); and control the heater to begin generating heat at the start time (t) for warm-up of the pump ().

In a reforming reactor (), a partial oxidation reaction is performed between a hydrocarbon fuel and air, and in a mixer (), water is injected into hot gas heated by the partial oxidation reaction to vaporize the water, and the vaporized water is mixed with the hot gas. In a shift reactor (), the vaporized water is made to undergo a shift reaction with the hot gas. In this way, a device for promoting vaporization of the water or a complex fuel injection device is not required.

Fuel reforming system of a fuel cell

Growing community of inventors

Yokosuka, Japan

Akihiro Sakakida