Nissan Motor Company Limited

Ken Iwai

Hideaki Horie

Takaaki Abe

Toyoaki Nakagawa

Mikio Kawai

Yuji Tanjo

Yuuji Tanjo

Yasuhiko Ohsawa

Osamu Shimamura

Atsushi Miyazawa

Jianbo Zhang

A fuel cell () is constituted by stacking membrane electrode assemblies () and separators (), wherein fuel gas passages (), oxidizing gas passages () and coolant passages (), which are formed by the separators (), are arranged in parallel along the outer surfaces of gas diffusion layers (A) and (C) of the membrane electrode assemblies (). With such a constitution, a thickness dimension of the separators () can be reduced, and with respect to a stacking direction of the fuel cell stack, the number of stacked unit cells can be increased in the same dimensions as that of the conventional fuel cell stack. Therefore, a fuel cell stack with a high output density can be obtained.

Fuel cell

There is provided a positive electrode comprising positive electrode active material granules which each are composed of lithium manganate; and a first surface layer which is formed on each of the positive electrode active material granules and is to transmit lithium (Li) ion but not manganese (Mn) ion therethrough.

Manganese-lithium ion electrolytic cell

A vehicle (V) includes a battery enclosure (,) enclosing a battery system (B). Each battery (B,) includes a cell (,) that comprises a rolled lamination (LM) of a positive sheet electrode (,) having layers (,) of positive-pole-oriented active substance coated on both side of a charge collecting sheet (,), a negative sheet electrode (,) having layers (,) of negative-pole-oriented active substance coated on both sides of another charge collecting sheet (,), and electrolyte-containing separator (,) between the layers of active substances. The batter further includes a cell enclosure (,) totally enclosing the cell. A gas effluent system (,) for the battery system comprises a gas release system (RS,) for generated gas in the cell of each battery to be released outside the cell enclosure, and a gas discharge system (DS) for released gas to be discharged outside the battery enclosure. The gas release system comprises gas release circuitry including a network (NT) of blanks (Cp: P&equals;1,2, . . . , q, . . . ) formed in the lamination, e.g. pointed or zoned blanks (,A,,) formed in the layer(s) of active substance(s) and/or the charge collecting electrode(s), a blank space (Sp) between the cell and the cell enclosure, and release valve (,). The gas discharge system comprises a gas discharge circuit (DC) communicable with the gas release circuitry, and provided as a draft controllable ducting (,) defined between a floor panel (,) of vehicle body (VB) and a wall of the battery enclosure.

Battery and gas effluent system therefor

A cell which has become inactive is detected in a multi-cell battery (,) comprising plural cells (C,). An inactivity detecting circuit comprising a signal generator (D,) and a diode (D,) connected in series, is connected in parallel with the cell (C,) When the cell becomes inactive, the signal generator (D,) emits a signal to indicate the state of the cell. Hence, it is possible to economically detect loss of cell activity.

Battery inactivation detection device

This invention relates to a lithium ion multi-cell battery (15) wherein plural lithium ion cells (C.sub.n) are arranged in series. Each cell comprises a positive electrode of manganese/spinal oxide and a negative electrode. A first Zener diode (Z.sub.n 1) and first resistor (R.sub.n 1) are connected in series between the electrodes. By setting the Zener voltage (VZ1) of the first Zener diode (Z.sub.n 1) equal to the cell voltage VL of the responding cell (C.sub.n) when positive electrode crystal phase transport stars in that cell (C.sub.n), the charge amount of each cell is made uniform.

Charge controlling device and method for multi-cell battery, and

A state of charge indicator of a lithium ion battery computes a state of charge (SOC) corresponding to a cell open circuit voltage from a SOC-cell open circuit voltage characteristic map, and displays the SOC on a display device. Herein, the SOC-cell open circuit voltage characteristics are obtained by defining the battery charge amount when the open circuit voltage of the cell is 3.9 V as SOC=100%, and defining the battery charge amount when the open circuit voltage of the cell is 3.5 V as SOC=100%. By defining SOC=100% and SOC=0% in this way, the SOC can be correctly computed and displayed even if the battery has deteriorated.

State of charge indicator

An inductor (L), capacitor (C) and alternator (OSC) are connected in series to the positive and negative poles of a battery (15). The temperature of the battery (15) is increased by causing the alternator (OSC) to generate an alternating current having the resonance frequency of the inductor (L) and capacitor (C). The alternating current is consumed by the internal resistance of the battery (15) due to the resonance of the inductor (L) and capacitor (C), and the temperature of the battery (15) therefore rises due to the heat thereby generated in the battery. In this way, the temperature of the battery (15) can be effectively increased with minimum power consumption.

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Yokosuka, Japan

Ken Iwai