Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Audi Ag

Atsuo Iio

Toshihiro Egawa

Hisaya Fujioka

Makito Okumura

Shigeki Hasegawa

Tomotaka Ishikawa

Tomio Yamanaka

Hiromichi Sato

Naoki Takehiro

Tatsuya Arai

Kohei Oda

Yusuke Miyamoto

Naoki Sugiyama

Naoki Tomi

Hiroko Kimura

Masafumi Yamagata

Koshi Sekizawa

A controller of a FC system disclosed herein may be configured to: (1) start both of first and second FC stacks when a measured value of a gas sensor is lower than a first concentration: (2) maintain both of the first and second FC stacks stopped when the measured value is higher than a second concentration which is higher than the first concentration; and (3) when the measured value is from the first concentration to the second concentration, supply the fuel gas to the first FC stack while maintaining supply of the fuel gas to the second FC stack stopped, thereafter stop supply of the fuel gas to the first FC stack when a pressure in the first FC stack reaches a pressure threshold, and thereafter start the first FC stack when the pressure in the first FC stack after a predetermined time is higher than a pressure lower limit.

Fuel cell system

An FC system disclosed herein may comprise a plurality of FC units, a cooler, and a controller. Each of the FC units may comprise a FC stack, a supply passage/a return passage/a circulating passage through which refrigerant passes, and first temperature sensor. The supply passage supplies the refrigerant from the cooler to the FC stack. The return passage returns the refrigerant to the cooler. The circulating passage is connected to the supply passage and the return passage. The first temperature sensor is configured to measure a temperature of the refrigerant in the supply passage at a position upstream of a merging point of the supply passage and the circulating passage. When measured values of the first temperature sensors of the plurality of the FC units do not match, the controller is configured to provide notification about malfunction of the first temperature sensor.

An FC system disclosed herein comprise FC units, a cooler and a controller. Each of the FC units comprises a FC stack, a supply/a return/a circulating passages through which refrigerant flows and first to third temperature sensors. The first to third temperature sensors measure temperatures of the refrigerant in the passages at different positions. The controller is configured to stop a specific FC unit, compare measured values of the first to third temperature sensors of the stopped specific FC unit and, when one of the measured values differs from the other two of the measured values, provide notification about malfunction of the temperature sensor with the different measured value.

A control unit of a fuel cell system acquires a service operating point, repeats a process of calculating a distance between the service operating point and a surging region, while transferring an operating point of a turbo compressor from a first operating point to a second operating point outside the surging region, sets opening degrees of a pressure adjusting valve and a bypass valve such that the turbo compressor operates at a required operating point, when the distance exceeds a threshold, and corrects at least one of the opening degrees of the pressure adjusting valve and the bypass valve such that the at least one of the opening degrees becomes larger than an opening degree set such that the turbo compressor operates at the required operating point, when the distance is equal to or shorter than the threshold.

Fuel cell system and method of controlling fuel cell system

There is provided a fuel cell system comprising a fuel cell including an electrolyte membrane, an anode and a cathode; and a controller configured to control a fuel gas supply part and an oxidizing gas supply part to supply amounts of a fuel gas and an oxidizing gas corresponding to a required power, to the fuel cell. During an intermittent operation that has the required power equal to or lower than a predetermined value and stops power generation in the fuel cell, the controller estimates a crossover amount that is an amount of the fuel gas moved from the anode to the cathode through the electrolyte membrane. The controller also calculates a supply amount of the oxidizing gas that is an amount of the oxidizing gas to be supplied to the fuel cell, based on the estimated crossover amount and controls the oxidizing gas supply part to supply the calculated supply amount of the oxidizing gas to the fuel cell. The supply amount of the oxidizing gas is calculated by an expression of: supply amount of oxidizing gas=crossover amount/2/oxygen concentration in oxidizing gas.

Fuel cell system and control method of fuel cell system

A fuel cell system comprises a fuel cell stack, radiator, cooling water feed passage, cooling water discharge passage, bypass cooling water passage, deionizer, stack side cooling water pump, radiator side cooling water pump, and bypass cooling water control valve. The radiator side cooling water pump and bypass cooling water control valve are controlled to selectively perform one of a stack flow through mode where cooling water flows through at least the fuel cell stack and a stack bypass mode where cooling water does not substantially flow through the fuel cell stack but circulates through the radiator and the bypass cooling water passage.

Fuel cell system and method of control of same

A fuel cell system comprises: a fuel cell stack; a turbo compressor configured to supply a cathode gas to the fuel cell stack through a cathode gas supply line; a pressure regulation valve configured to regulate a pressure of the cathode gas; and a controller, wherein the controller is configured to calculate a target rotation speed of the turbo compressor and a target opening position of the pressure regulation valve, based on a target flow rate of the cathode gas and a target pressure of the cathode gas that are determined according to a required power output of the fuel cell stack and to control the turbo compressor and the pressure regulation valve using the calculated target rotation speed and the calculated target opening position, and the controller is configured, upon increase of the required power output, to: (a) determine an acceptable overshoot level of a flow rate of the cathode gas that is to be supplied to the fuel cell stack, the acceptable overshoot level being selected from a plurality of levels based on at least an increased amount of the required power output; and (b) set a time change in opening position of the pressure regulation valve such that an overshoot amount in a change of the flow rate of the cathode gas becomes smaller as the acceptable overshoot level gets lower, and perform control of the pressure regulation valve. This configuration suppresses an excessive overshoot in the flow rate of the cathode gas.

Fuel cell system and control method of the same

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing fine catalyst particles, a method for producing carbon-supported fine catalyst particles, a method for producing a catalyst mix, and a method for producing an electrode, all of which are configured to inhibit, when used in fuel cells, etc., performance deterioration during operation at especially high temperature. Disclosed is a method for producing fine catalyst particles each comprising a core particle and an outermost layer, the core particle containing palladium and the outermost layer containing platinum and covering the core particle, the method comprising the steps of: preparing palladium-containing particles; preparing an acid solution configured to dissolve palladium more preferentially than platinum; covering each palladium-containing particle with an outermost layer containing platinum; and bringing the palladium-containing particles each covered with the outermost layer into contact with the acid solution.

Method for producing fine catalyst particles, method for producing carbon-supported fine catalyst particles, method for producing catalyst mix and method for producing electrode

A fuel cell system comprises a controller configured to: (i) calculate a torque target value of a compressor and an opening position target value of a pressure regulation valve from a flow rate target value of a cathode gas and a pressure target value of a cathode gas flow path, the flow rate target value of the cathode gas and the pressure target value being determined according to a required power output of a fuel cell stack; (ii) calculate a torque feedback value of the compressor from a difference between a flow rate measurement value and the flow rate target value of the cathode gas, and control the compressor using a torque command value obtained by adding the torque target value and the torque feedback value; and (iii) calculate an opening position feedback value of the pressure regulation valve from a difference between a pressure measurement value and the pressure target value of the cathode gas flow path, and control an opening position of the pressure regulation valve using an opening position command value obtained by adding the opening position target value of the pressure regulation valve and a delayed opening position feedback value that is obtained by delaying the opening position feedback value. This configuration suppresses the hunting of the flow rate and the pressure.

A fuel cell system comprises a fuel cell stack, radiator, stack side cooling water passage, radiator side cooling water passage, bypass cooling water passage, deionizer, stack side cooling water pump, and radiator side cooling water pump. The pump are formed from rotary pumps able to change directions and amounts of cooling water discharged by changes of drive speeds. Drive speeds of the pumps are controlled to thereby control an amount of cooling water flowing through the radiator side cooling water passage, an amount of the cooling water flowing through the stack side cooling water passage, and a direction and amount of the cooling water flowing through the bypass cooling water passage.

Fuel cell system and control method thereof

A fuel cell including a single fuel cell which includes a membrane electrode including a polymer electrolyte membrane, an anode electrode on one surface of the polymer electrolyte membrane, and a cathode electrode on another surface of the polymer electrolyte membrane, the anode electrode including an anode catalyst layer and a gas diffusion layer and the cathode electrode including a cathode catalyst layer and a gas diffusion layer. At least one of the anode cathode catalyst layers includes core-shell type catalyst particles, each having a core and a shell covering the core and including a shell metallic material. At least one of the polymer electrolyte membrane, anode catalyst layer, gas diffusion layer at the anode side, cathode catalyst layer and gas diffusion layer at the cathode side includes metallic nanoparticles having an average particle diameter different from that of the core-shell type catalyst particles and including the shell metallic material.

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Atsuo Iio