Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Atsushi Kamachi

Shunsuke Itami

Hitoshi Okanobori

Akane Goto

Manabu Iwaida

Takuto Nakagawa

Kazuhide Inoue

Masataka Furuyama

Keiko Yamazaki

Kiyohide Hibino

Ryo Kobayashi

A control unit estimates a discharged fuel gas amount, i.e., an amount of fuel gas discharged from the outlet of a cathode flow field, of a fuel exhaust gas introduced from a communication flow path to the inlet of the cathode flow field and then flowing through a cathode. The control unit calculates an oxygen-containing gas amount necessary for dilution at the time of discharge into the atmosphere, from the estimated discharged fuel gas amount, and sets a discharge amount of the air pump, based on the calculated oxygen-containing gas amount.

Fuel cell system and method of controlling the system

In a method of operating a fuel cell system, a stable-period voltage difference is calculated in a state where output power of the fuel cell stack is stable. Thereafter, a voltage difference is calculated during power generation. Then, it is determined whether or not the change amount of the voltage difference with respect to the stable-period voltage difference has exceeded a predetermined threshold value. When it is determined that the change amount has exceeded the predetermined threshold value, electric power is generated with the supply amount of the anode gas to the fuel cell stack being increased.

Method of operating fuel cell system

A method for operating a fuel cell vehicle includes supplying electric power to a vehicle drive motor from at least one of a fuel cell and a battery. It is determined whether an electric potential of electric power output from the fuel cell is within a deterioration acceleration region in which the fuel cell is deteriorated due to a platinum oxidation-reduction reaction. The fuel cell is controlled in a deterioration suppressing mode when the electric potential is within the deterioration acceleration region in a state where the fuel cell and the battery supply electric power to the vehicle drive motor.

Method for operating fuel cell vehicle

A thermoelectric conversion apparatus has an evaporator for heating a working medium in liquid-phase to evaporate the working medium, an electric generator for forming a concentration cell for electric power generation when it is supplied with a reactive gas and the working medium evaporated by the evaporator, and a gas-liquid separator for being supplied with a mixed gas of the working medium and a cathode off-gas discharged from the electric generator and separating the mixed gas into the working medium and the reactive gas. The thermoelectric conversion apparatus also has an anode supply passage for supplying the reactive gas separated by the gas-liquid separator to the electric generator, and a cathode supply passage for supplying the working medium separated by the gas-liquid separator through the evaporator to the electric generator.

Thermoelectric conversion apparatus

An energy utilization apparatus includes: an endothermic reaction device for performing dehydrogenation endothermic reaction of an organic compound; a compression device for pressurizing a first gas containing hydrogen and a dehydrogenated organic compound, and a non-reacted organic compound which are produced in the endothermic reaction device; a distillation device for distilling under pressure the first gas which is pressurized by the compression device, so as to separate the hydrogen and the dehydrogenated organic compound from the liquefied non-reacted organic compound; a vaporization device for vaporizing the liquefied non-reacted organic compound by pressure-relieving; and an expansion energy recovery device for obtaining power of the compression device by using expansion force generated by the vaporization.

Energy utilization apparatus and energy utilization method

A fuel cell includes a laminated, plate-shaped membrane electrode assembly and first and second separator plates sandwiching the membrane electrode assembly. The membrane electrode assembly includes a polymer electrolyte membrane; first and second electrode layers sandwiching the polymer electrolyte membrane; and first and second gas-diffusion layers disposed on an outer side of the electrode layers, respectively. The first and second gas-diffusion layers are made of an air-permeable metallic material. An arithmetic average roughness Ra of a surface of the air-permeable metallic material on the side contacting one of the electrode layers is in a range of 0.1 &#x3bc;m&#x2266;Ra&#x2266;1.0 &#x3bc;m.

Fuel cell

A thermoelectric conversion apparatus having a high thermoelectric conversion efficiency comprises: a dehydrogenation reactor for generating hydrogen and acetone by an endothermic dehydrogenation reaction of isopropyl alcohol in the presence of a dehydrogenation catalyst and heat from a heat source, and a fuel cell which generates electricity by an electrochemical reaction of the hydrogen and the acetone produced by the dehydrogenation reactor. A module is constructed by integrating the dehydrogenation reactor and an electricity generating layer constituting the fuel cell into a stack.

Growing community of inventors

Wako, Japan

Atsushi Kamachi