Suzuki Motor Corporation

Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Kengo Ikeya

Yoshifumi Takai

Yoshimasa Matsumoto

Shiro Matsumoto

Damian Patrick Davies

Nathan Grange

Toshihide Tachibana

Takanori Murakami

Tohru Ohta

Naoki Ozawa

Matthew K Hortop

Tomoharu Yamamoto

David John Keyes

Yohei Takada

Ellen Greifenstein

Kazuyuki Izawa

Gaku Shimonihara

Ryuji Ohtsuka

Ryuhji Ohtsuka

A fuel cell vehicle provided with an exhaust duct structure is capable of reliably diluting hydrogen flowing into an exhaust duct. The fuel cell vehicle includes a vehicle body, an air-cooled fuel cell mounted in the vehicle body to generate power by allowing hydrogen gas and oxygen in air to react with each other, an exhaust duct through which exhaust air of the fuel cell is guided to a rear end of the vehicle body and is discharged outside the fuel cell vehicle, and a fan guiding air into the exhaust duct to dilute hydrogen in the exhaust duct.

Fuel cell vehicle

To restrain deterioration of fuel cells while preventing a battery from being overcharged, a fuel cell vehicle includes a motor for providing torque to wheels, a battery for storing electric power to provide the stored electric power to the motor, and a FC stack for generating electric power to provide the generated electric power to the motor and the battery. A battery charge level determining module determines a battery charge level of the battery, and a FET is configured to connect or disconnect the FC stack to the motor and the battery. A controller is configured to cause the FET to disconnect the FC stack from the motor and the battery and allow power generation by the FC stack when the determined battery charge level by the battery charge level determining module is greater than or equal to a first predetermined threshold.

Vehicle electric power supply control system and vehicle

A fuel cell stackadapted for an electrochemical reaction of a fuel gas to generate an electric power is provided with a working point measuring sectionfor measuring a generation voltage and a generation current of the fuel cell stack, and connected to a controllerincluding an output characteristic map memoryfor storing output characteristics of the fuel cell stack, and a potential output power estimatorfor estimating a potential output power of the fuel cell stackbased on a combination of a current generation voltage Vand a current generation current Imeasured by the working point measuring sectionand pieces of information stored in the output characteristic map memory

Fuel cell system

A vehicle fuel cell apparatus includes a fuel cell stack configured to take in air as a reaction gas and a coolant through an air intake aperture area, and discharge temperature-raised air through air discharging aperture areas. An air suction duct, air discharge ducts, and air discharge fans take in air to the air suction duct. The air discharge ducts have air discharge ports in the vicinity of the air suction duct. The air suction duct is formed with first air intake ports opening at its upstream end portion, and second air intake ports opening at locations nearer to the air discharge ports of the air discharge ducts than the first air intake ports. The second air intake ports are provided with shutters. The arrangement provides a vehicle fuel cell apparatus having enhanced operability in situations involving low-temperature outside air, and allows for enhanced mountability to vehicles.

Vehicle fuel cell apparatus with improved air intake

An air supply and exhaust structure for supplying a reaction air to a fuel cell and exhausting the reaction air passing through the fuel cell includes: an intake duct configured to guide reaction air to the fuel cell; an exhaust duct configured to discharge the reaction air passing through the fuel cell to an outside of the fuel cell; a blower provided in the exhaust duct and configured to suck the reaction air passing through the fuel cell to promote discharge of the reaction air; and an exhaust side shield unit which is disposed inside the exhaust duct and between the fuel cell and the blower and configured to temporarily block the reaction air discharged from the fuel cell and to retain the reaction air in a periphery of the fuel cell so as to introduce the reaction air to the fuel cell.

Air supply and exhaust structure for fuel cell

Provided is a cooling structure for vehicle electrical components that is capable of solving problems due to water contained in intake air. Air used in an electricity generation reaction and air necessary for self-cooling is supplied to a fuel cell stack () via an intake duct (). Dust and chemical substances in the air are removed by a dust/chemical substance filter () provided on the fuel cell stack () side within the intake duct (). Furthermore, air and water are primarily separated by a water filter () provided in the intake duct () upstream by a prescribed distance in the air flow direction from the dust/chemical substance filter (). Therefore, water in the intake air does not reach the dust/chemical substance filter () and the fuel cell stack (), and various problems due to water contained in the intake air can be solved.

Air intake device for fuel cell vehicle

A heating apparatus for a fuel cell vehicle is provided. The apparatus includes a fuel cell for generating electricity by a chemical reaction of oxygen and hydrogen, a cathode exhaust passage through which outside air introduced and supplied to the cathode electrode of the fuel cell so as to be used for the power generation reaction is discharged from the fuel cell, and an anode exhaust passage through which the hydrogen is discharged from the fuel cell. The heating apparatus further includes a branch passage which is branched from a branch point of the cathode exhaust passage and supplies the air discharged from the fuel cell to the vehicle compartment, and the anode exhaust passage is joined to the cathode exhaust passage on the downstream side of the branch point.

Heating apparatus of fuel cell vehicle

The grill shutter is disposed between the front grill and the air intake duct. The grill shutter is capable of opening or closing shutter members and regulating positions of the shutter members when being opened. When a maximum supplied flow rate of air provided by the wind during running is greater than a flow rate of air required for the hydrogen fuel battery, the required flow rate of air is established only by opening/closing control of the shutter members through a grill shutter opening instruction. If this is not the case, the grill shutter members are opened fully through the grill shutter opening instruction to maximize the volume of the wind during running taken in from the front grille. Additionally, a shortfall in the required flow rate of air for the hydrogen fuel battery is compensated for by actuating the blower through a blower speed instruction.

Fuel cell cooling system for vehicle and fuel cell-powered vehicle

To achieve smooth drawing of air into a fuel cell, the air-flow resistance of an exhaust passage is reduced and intrusion of water into an exhaust duct is prevented. In the present invention, in an exhaust device of a fuel cell vehicle, an exhaust chamber is attached to a lower surface of the front hood, the exhaust duct extends upward in a vertical direction from a rear portion of a fuel cell case, an exhaust port at an upper end of the exhaust duct opens to an interior of the exhaust chamber, a penetrating hole through which the inside of the exhaust chamber communicates with the outside space, is formed in the front hood in a portion in front of the exhaust port in a vehicle front and rear direction, the penetrating hole is covered with a cover, and an opening portion opening toward a rear side of the vehicle and being positioned above and away from an upper surface of the front hood, is formed in the cover.

Exhaust device of fuel cell vehicle

An object of the present invention is to efficiently heat a vehicle cabin of a fuel cell vehicle by utilizing heat of air discharged from a fuel cell stack. In a fuel cell vehicle in which an exhaust duct configured to discharge air from a fuel cell stack is arranged below a floor, the exhaust duct includes: a lower surface wall facing at least a lower surface of the floor with a predetermined gap therebetween; and a pair of side walls extending from right and left side portions of the lower surface wall toward the lower surface of the floor, and the floor is configured to be heated by the air flowing in the exhaust duct.

This invention relates to a fuel cell system comprising: a fuel cell stack; a hydrogen-gas supply device configured to supply hydrogen gas filled in a hydrogen tank into the fuel cell stack along with pressure reduction of the hydrogen gas; an air supply duct configured to supply air into the fuel cell stack; and an air exhaust duct configured to exhaust surplus air from the fuel cell stack. The hydrogen-gas supply device is disposed inside a heat exchange chamber capable of communicating with the air supply duct and the air exhaust duct.

An exhaust apparatus includes a lower side exhaust duct and an upper side exhaust duct which are branched vertically, and in that the lower side exhaust duct is extended toward the lower side of the vehicle from an exhaust outlet portion of the air-cooled fuel cell stack, and the downstream end portion of the lower side exhaust duct is opened at a lower portion of the front compartment, while the upper side exhaust duct is extended toward the upper side of the vehicle from an upper portion of an outer wall of the lower side exhaust duct, the outer wall extending toward the lower side of the vehicle, and the downstream end portion of the upper side exhaust duct is opened between the rear end portion of the front hood and the front end portion of the front window.

Exhaust apparatus of air-cooled fuel cell vehicle

A hybrid fuel cell system that employs a fuel cell stack and an ultracapacitor. A diode is provided on a high voltage electrical bus between the fuel cell stack and the ultracapacitor so that high voltage from the ultracapacitor does not affect the operation of the fuel cell stack. During system start-up, a by-pass switch is closed to by-pass the ultracapacitor so that power from the ultracapacitor can be used to start various system loads, such as a cathode side air compressor that provides air to the fuel cell stack. A 12 volt-to-high voltage converter is employed to provide a low power, high voltage supply from a low voltage battery to the system loads at start-up when the by-pass switch is opened, but before a fuel cell stack switch is closed.

Growing community of inventors

Shizuoka, Japan

Kengo Ikeya