Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Denso Corporation

Sumitomo Electric Industries, Limited

Hiromichi Sato

Satoshi Aoyama

Toshihide Nakata

Naoki Ito

Satoshi Iguchi

Shigeki Hasegawa

Yuichi Yagami

Atsuo Iio

Takashi Kajiwara

Masahiko Iijima

Seiji Sano

Yoshifumi Ota

Fumihiko Inui

Kenji Kimura

Norihiko Nakamura

Shinichi Matsumoto

Kentaro Yoshida

Nobuaki Nonoyama

Tomohiko Ihara

Takashi Uemura

Shigeru Ogino

Makoto Ueno

Sho Usami

Nakaya Takagaki

Yasuhiro Izawa

Osamu Mizuno

Tetsuya Tokuda

Yasuhiko Koda

Katsuhisa Hirano

Kazuya Matsushita

Kaori Komatsubara

Syo Usami

Hiroshi Kinomoto

Go Kuroyanagi

Yuya Chono

Hisashi Jufuku

To provide a fuel cell system configured to achieve both rapid cooling of a fuel cell at high temperatures and rapid heating of the fuel cell at the time of system start-up. In the fuel cell system, by controlling a three-way valve, a controller switches to any one of the following circulation systems: radiator circulation in which a refrigerant flows to a radiator through a first flow path, and third flow path circulation in which the refrigerant bypasses the radiator and flows to a second flow path through a third flow path; when the temperature of the refrigerant is equal to or less than a low temperature threshold, the controller switches from the radiator circulation to the third flow path circulation and closes a first valve; and when the temperature of the refrigerant becomes equal to or more than a high temperature threshold, the controller opens the first valve and circulate the refrigerant to flow through the reserve tank.

Fuel cell system

A control device for a fuel cell vehicle includes a power limiter limiting power of a fuel cell when a temperature correlation value correlated to a temperature of the fuel cell indicates that the temperature is equal to or higher than a temperature threshold, a calculation unit calculating a weight of a towed vehicle, a gradient acquirer acquiring upward gradients at respective points on a planned traveling route, a predictor predicting whether the power of the fuel cell is limited when the fuel cell vehicle is traveling along the planned traveling route in a towing travel state, and a controller issuing, when the predictor predicts that the power of the fuel cell is limited, an alert that a vehicle speed of the fuel cell vehicle is expected to decrease when the fuel cell vehicle is traveling along the planned traveling route in the towing travel state.

Control device for fuel cell vehicle and fuel cell vehicle

A fuel cell system that includes: an ion exchanger that is provided at a circulation path and that restores insulation resistance of a coolant; a detector that is provided at the circulation path at a downstream side of a radiator in a circulation direction of the coolant and that detects conductivity of the coolant; and a controller that is electrically connected to the detector and a pump and that controls driving of at least the pump. In a state in which the pump is stopped and in a case in which the insulation resistance of the coolant, which is obtained from the conductivity of the coolant that has been detected by the detector, becomes equal to or less than a specific value, the controller starts the driving of the pump such that the coolant passes through the ion exchanger.

A vehicular under cover includes an oblong hole-shaped through-hole and is assembled to a lower side of a vehicle so as to cover a lower part of the heat source. In a plan view, the through-hole is formed so that a longitudinal direction of the through-hole is inclined with respect to a front-rear direction of the vehicle. The inclination excludes an orthogonal direction to the front-rear direction of the vehicle.

Vehicular under cover

In a cooling system of a fuel cell, a first container for receiving a part of a coolant from a circulation flow path for circulating a coolant between a fuel cell and a heat exchanger is connected to the circulation flow path, a second container is connected to the first container via a pressure regulating valve, and a gas diffusion portion is provided in the second container. When a pressure inside the first container is equal to or higher than a threshold, the pressure regulating valve is opened and a gas inside the first container is released into the second container. The gas diffusion portion gradually discharges the gas released into the second container to outside of the system.

Cooling system of fuel cell

A bottom cover includes a plate portion including an inner-peripheral-edge portion defining an inlet, and a cooling duct including an upper wall and a pair of right and left sidewalls. The upper wall includes an upper-wall front portion inclined upward in the vehicle-height direction at a predetermined inclination angle, an upper-wall rear portion inclined upward in the vehicle-height direction at an inclination angle larger than the predetermined inclination angle of the upper-wall front portion, and the first upper-wall bent portion located at a boundary between the upper-wall front portion and the upper-wall rear portion. The rear ends of the right and left sidewalls, the rear end of the inner-peripheral-edge portion, and the rear end of the upper wall define an outlet.

Bottom cover and cooling duct

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 controls an amount of cooling water supplied to a radiator and an amount of cooling water supplied into a radiator bypass pipe by regulating a temperature of a thermostat valve by controlling a temperature of a heat medium in a housing by an air conditioning apparatus.

Fuel cell system and method for controlling fuel cell system

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

The separator of which the region facing the MEA is a flat includes the first electrode facing plate and the second electrode facing plate. The separator includes the reaction gas supply manifold to which the reaction gas is supplied. The first electrode facing plate includes a plurality of reaction gas supply holes formed at the end of the cell-reaction region. The intermediate plate includes a plurality of reaction gas supply path slits that forms the reaction gas supply paths, wherein each of the reaction gas supply paths has one end connected to the reaction gas supply manifold and other end connected to at least one of the plurality of reaction gas supply holes.

Fuel cell separator

A separator of a fuel cell stack, which has flat surfaces that face MEAs, includes a cathode-side plate, an anode-side plate and an intermediate plate. The intermediate plate has a plurality of oxidant gas supply channel openings that communicate with an oxidant gas supply manifold and oxidant gas supply holes of the cathode-side plate, and a plurality of oxidant gas exhaust channel openings that communicate with an oxidant gas exhaust manifold and oxidant gas exhaust holes of the anode-side plate. The width and spacing of the oxidant gas exhaust channel openings are set to be larger than those of the oxidant gas supply channel openings.

A hydrogen permeable membrane () for selectively allowing hydrogen to permeate therethrough includes a metal base layer () containing vanadium (V), a metal coating layer () containing palladium (Pd), and an intermediate layer () that is formed between the metal base layer () and the metal coating layer () and made of a metal having a higher melting point than the metal base layer () and the metal coating layer () and possessing hydrogen permeability.

Hydrogen permeable membrane, fuel cell and hydrogen extracting apparatus equipped with the hydrogen permeable membrane, and method of manufacturing the hydrogen permeable membrane

A fuel cell of the invention has a hydrogen permeable metal layer, which is formed on a plane of an electrolyte layer that has proton conductivity and includes a hydrogen permeable metal. The fuel cell includes a higher temperature zone and a lower temperature zone that has a lower temperature than the higher temperature zone. The hydrogen permeable metal layer includes a lower temperature area A corresponding to the lower temperature zone and a higher temperature area B corresponding to the higher temperature zone. The lower temperature area A and the higher temperature area B have different settings of composition and/or layout of components. This arrangement effectively prevents potential deterioration of cell performance due to an uneven distribution of internal temperature of the fuel cell including the hydrogen permeable metal layer.

Fuel cell

The manufacturing method of the invention is applied to manufacture a unit fuel cellwhich has a hydrogen-permeable metal layerof a hydrogen-permeable metal and an electrolyte layerthat is located on the hydrogen-permeable metal layerand has proton conductivity. The method first forms the electrolyte layeron the hydrogen-permeable metal layerand subsequently forms an electrically conductive cathodeon the electrolyte layerto block off an electrical connection between the cathodeand the hydrogen-permeable metal layerThe method releases Pd toward the electrolyte layerin a direction substantially perpendicular to the electrolyte layerto form a Pd layer as the cathodethat is thinner than the electrolyte layerThis arrangement of the invention effective prevents a potential short circuit, for example, between the cathode and the hydrogen-permeable metal layer, in the fuel cell, due to pores present in the electrolyte layer.

Fuel cell manufacturing method and fuel cell

A hydrogen separation filter includes a plurality of hydrogen extraction layers, a plurality of separation layers with hydrogen separation films, and a plurality of reformed gas layers, which are laid one upon another in the sequence of the extraction layer, the separation layer, the reformed gas layer, and the separation layer to form a laminate structure. The respective layers are composed of porous ceramic material to ensure the required strength. The direction of the gas flow in the reformed gas layers and that in the extraction layers are respectively fixed to simplify the gas intake and discharge structure. The hydrogen separation filter is covered with a casing via a cushioning member to ensure the sufficient strength and the required sealing properties. A methanation catalyst that accelerates methanation of carbon monoxide is carried on either the separation layer or the extraction layer. This arrangement effectively relieves the adverse effects of contamination of resulting hydrogen with carbon monoxide, due to a pinhole or a partial damage of the layers.

Growing community of inventors

Atsugi, Japan

Hiromichi Sato