Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Toyota Shatai Kabushiki Kaisha

Hiroki Okabe

Tomohiro Shinagawa

Yoshihiro Shinozaki

Satoshi Futami

Kazunori Shibata

Kousuke Kawajiri

Hiroya Nakaji

Takamasa Kanie

Takashi Kondo

Kenji Sato

Takuya Kurihara

Norishige Konno

Hideaki Tanaka

Yutaka Hotta

Tomohiko Kaneko

Manabu Kato

Keiji Hashimoto

Hideo Nakamura

Chisato Kato

Shigetaka Hamada

Makoto Yoshida

Katsuhiko Kinoshita

Atsushi Ida

Kazumi Sugita

Yoshinori Shinozaki

Kazuomi Yamanishi

Nobuhiko Nakagaki

Hideki Kubo

Kimio Saito

Junji Ueda

Yuki Sugino

Makoto Aoyama

Hiroshi Adachi

To provide an air vehicle configured to stabilize the power output of a fuel cell by securing the generated water discharge property of the fuel cell. An air vehicle, wherein the air vehicle comprises two or more fuel cells; wherein each fuel cell comprises an anode outlet manifold; and wherein each fuel cell is disposed in the air vehicle so that water discharge directions of the anode outlet manifolds are different from each other.

Air vehicle

To provide a fuel cell system configured to charge a battery with maintaining the independence and redundancy of a fuel cell and a battery as power sources. A fuel cell system for air vehicles, wherein the fuel cell system comprises a fuel cell, a battery, a motor and a controller; wherein the fuel cell and the battery are connected to the motor as independent power sources, and the motor includes a double three-phase winding that uses a double inverter; and wherein, when normal output is requested from the motor, the controller operates the motor by a predetermined first output from the fuel cell, and the controller charges the battery by a torque generated in the motor.

Fuel cell system and air vehicle

To provide a fuel cell system configured to prevent the freezing of the gas and water discharge valve of the fuel gas system even at high altitude. A fuel cell system for air vehicles, wherein the fuel cell system comprises: a fuel cell, a fuel gas system for supplying fuel gas to the fuel cell, a cooling system for controlling a temperature of the fuel cell, an altitude sensor, a temperature sensor, and a controller, and wherein, when the controller detects an altitude increase measured by the altitude sensor, and when a temperature of the gas and water discharge valve measured by the temperature sensor is less than a predetermined temperature, the controller increases a temperature of the refrigerant by controlling the three-way valve to circulate the refrigerant in the heating flow path and operating the circulation pump and the water heater to heat the refrigerant.

A fuel cell system for air vehicles, wherein the fuel cell system comprises: a fuel cell, a fuel gas system for supplying fuel gas to the fuel cell, a potential sensor, and a controller; wherein the fuel gas system comprises a fuel gas supplier; wherein the controller determines whether or not a potential of the fuel cell measured by the potential sensor, is a reversal potential; and wherein, when the controller determines that the potential of the fuel cell is a reversal potential, the controller increases a fuel gas supply from the fuel gas supplier to the fuel cell.

To provide a fuel cell system configured to increase fuel cell performance even at high altitude. A fuel cell system for air vehicles, wherein the fuel cell system comprises: a fuel cell, an oxidant gas system for supplying oxidant gas to the fuel cell, an altitude sensor, and a controller; wherein the oxidant gas system comprises an air compressor and a bypass flow path bypassing the fuel cell; wherein the bypass flow path comprises a bypass valve; and wherein, when the controller detects an altitude increase measured by the altitude sensor, the controller increases a rotational speed of the air compressor, and the controller increases an opening degree of the bypass valve.

A fuel cell stack comprising stacked unit cells, each comprising a membrane electrode assembly comprising an electrolyte membrane and a pair of electrodes disposed on both surfaces thereof, two separators sandwiching the membrane electrode assembly, and a frame-shaped resin sheet disposed between the two separators and around the membrane electrode assembly to attach the separators, wherein the resin sheet comprises a first protrusion protruding in the planar direction of the resin sheet and occupying a part of a first region occupied by a reaction gas inlet manifold, and a second protrusion protruding in the planar direction of the resin sheet and occupying a part of a second region occupied by a reaction gas outlet manifold; and wherein the resin sheet comprises at least one water discharge hole at a predetermined position of at least one protrusion selected from the group consisting of the first protrusion and the second protrusion.

Fuel cell stack

A fuel cell stackincludes a cell laminatecomposed of a plurality of stacked cells, and air is introduced from an anode end partof the cell laminate. The cell laminatehas two end cellsinstalled adjacently to a cathode end partside, thereby providing the cathode end partwith high thermal insulation properties.

A fuel cell includes: a membrane electrode assembly; and a separator disposed on one side of the membrane electrode assembly, wherein the separator includes flow path grooves through which reactant gas flows between the separator and the membrane electrode assembly, the flow path grooves include: wavy grooves wavily extending in a first direction and arranged in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction; and a linear groove linearly extending in the first direction, the wavy grooves include: a first wavy groove located closest to the linear groove among the wavy grooves; and a second wavy groove located opposite to the linear groove with respect to the first wavy groove, and amplitude of the first wavy groove is smaller than that of the second wavy groove.

Fuel cell

A fuel cell stack includes a plurality of cells laminated. Each of the cells includes: a membrane electrode gas diffusion layer assembly; an insulating member; a first separator including a first gas passage and a first refrigerant passage; first, second, and third manifolds penetrating through the insulating member and the first separator such that a first gas, a second gas, and a refrigerant circulate through the first, second, and third manifolds, respectively; and a second separator including a second gas passage and a second refrigerant passage and configured to sandwich the membrane electrode gas diffusion layer assembly and the insulating member together with the first separator. In the each of the cells, the insulating member includes a first communication portion, a second communication portion, and a third communication portion, and the first separator has a communication opening via which the third communication portion communicates with the first refrigerant passage.

Fuel cell stack having laminated cells

A manufacturing method for a fuel cell includes: preparing a membrane electrode gas diffusion layer assembly; preparing a support frame having an electrical insulating property and an ultraviolet permeability; preparing a separator; bonding the membrane electrode gas diffusion layer assembly and the support frame to each other via a first ultraviolet curable adhesive; and, after the membrane electrode gas diffusion layer assembly and the support frame are bonded to each other, bonding the support frame and the separator to each other via a second ultraviolet curable adhesive.

Manufacturing method for fuel cell

A dummy cell laminated on a fuel cell stack and configured not to perform power generation includes: a common appearance portion having an appearance common with an appearance of a power generation cell used in the fuel cell stack and configured to perform power generation; and a non-common appearance portion having an appearance different from the appearance of the power generation cell.

Dummy cell and fuel cell stack

A method for manufacturing a separator for fuel cell including a seal part of thermosetting resin can have improved productivity. The method includes a placing step to place uncured thermosetting resin on a substrate, a pre-curing step to pre-cure the uncured thermosetting resin on the substrate, and a curing step to cure the pre-cured thermosetting resin on the collected plurality of substrates to collectively form the seal parts on the plurality of substrates.

Method for manufacturing separator for fuel cell

A channel forming body used in a fuel cell module has a gas channel, a water conduit, and a communication path that provides communication between the gas channel and the water conduit. When a ridge is seen in a cross-section perpendicular to a channel extension direction, one of both ends of an external shape of the ridge is shaped so as to be located closer to a center of the ridge than an imaginary surface of the channel assumed to extend in a straight line along the channel extension direction. Portions of the ridge located closer to the center of the ridge are formed opposite from each other at left and right ends of the external shape of the ridge with the communication path interposed therebetween.

Fuel cell module with arranged ridge segments

A separator for fuel cell includes a corrugated portion formed to have a corrugated cross section where a first groove that is concave to a first surface to form a flow path for a first fluid on the first surface and a second groove that is concave to a second surface opposite to the first surface to form a flow path for a second fluid on the second surface are arranged alternately and repeatedly. Each of the second grooves has at least one shallower groove section formed to have a less depth from the second surface than depth of a remaining groove section and provided to form a communication flow channel on the first surface side, which is arranged to communicate between two flow path spaces for the first fluid that are adjacent to each other across the shallower groove section.

Separator for fuel cell, fuel cell and method of manufacturing fuel cell

A gas flow passage-forming member is disposed between a membrane electrode and gas diffusion layer assembly and a separator of a fuel cell, and the gas flow passage-forming member is configured to form a gas flow passage. The gas flow passage-forming member has a corrugated shape such that groove portions and ridge portions are provided on each of a front side and a back side of the gas flow passage-forming member. The groove portions each serve as the gas flow passage. The gas flow passage-forming member has communication holes providing communication between the front side and the back side, and the communication holes are provided in a region downstream of an upstream region in a gas flow direction. The upstream region is a non-communication region with no communication hole.

Growing community of inventors

Okazaki, Japan

Hiroki Okabe