Kyocera Corporation

Dainichi Co., Ltd.

Aisin Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha

Eiji Taniguchi

Hiroshi Inoue

Takashi Ono

Kenta Okino

Kazutaka Nakamura

Takashi Shigehisa

Hirotaka Sato

Kazumasa Takada

Junichi Yokoyama

Norihiko Toyonaga

Yasuaki Ando

A fuel cell system includes an oxygen-containing gas supply that supplies air to a fuel cell module, a fuel supply that supplies a fuel gas to a fuel cell, a power regulator that regulates supply of a generated current to a load, and a controller. The controller includes a plurality of relational expressions predefined and representing a relationship between a generation current level of the fuel cell and at least one of an air utilization or a fuel utilization, and selects at least one of the plurality of relational expressions based on an increase rate of the current set by the power regulator to increase the generation current level for an independent operation to be performed in, for example, an outage.

Fuel cell system

A control apparatus includes a control unit which instructs a constant temperature mode to the fuel cell unit as one of operation modes, the constant temperature mode being a mode for performing an control to cover power consumption of the auxiliaries by power supplied from the outside and an control to keep a temperature of the power generation unit constant within a prescribed temperature range. In the constant temperature mode, power output from the power generation unit is at least smaller than the power consumption of the auxiliaries.

Control apparatus, fuel cell unit and control method

A fuel cell includes a fuel cell, auxiliaries, a storage battery, an auxiliary power switching unit and a controlling device. The fuel cell is connected to a system power supply. The auxiliaries are coupled to the fuel cell. The auxiliary power switching unit switches power supplies to at least one of the auxiliaries from the storage battery. When the fuel cell device that is not operating starts operation at a time of power failure of the system power supply, the controlling device determines whether or not each of the auxiliaries need power for startup of the fuel cell and prompts the auxiliary power switching unit to supply the power from the storage battery to one or more auxiliaries for which the controlling device has determined a power demand for the startup.

Fuel cell device

Provided is a fuel cell module and a fuel cell device of which power generation efficiency is improved. A fuel cell device includes a fuel cell module including a housing and a fuel cell stack which is composed of a plurality of fuel cells and is inside the housing, a power conditioner configured to supply electric current generated by the fuel cell stack to an external load, and a controller configured to control the power conditioner such that, at a time of starting power generation, a voltage value of the fuel cells is greater than a voltage value for generating a maximum output in power generation of the fuel cells, and the fuel cell module, the power conditioner and the controller are accommodated in an external case. Accordingly, deterioration of the fuel cells can be suppressed, and the fuel cell device having improved reliability can be obtained.

Method for controlling fuel cell device during power generation start by controlling power conditioner

Growing community of inventors

Moriyama, Japan

Eiji Taniguchi