Nissan Motor Company Limited

Utc Fuel Cells, LLC

Koudai Yoshizawa

Tomonori Urushihara

Hiroshi Miyakubo

Atushi Teraji

Akihiro Iiyama

Koichi Yamaguchi

Ken Naitoh

Tsuyoshi Taniyama

Kazuya Hasegawa

Yasukazu Iwasaki

Koji Hiraya

Atsushi Teraji

Eiji Aochi

Shinichi Takahashi

Patrick L Hagans

Yasunori Iwakiri

Teruyuki Itoh

Shugo Higashi

A fuel cell is provided that includes a cell structure, a pair of separators and a plurality of at least partially porous ribs. The cell structure includes an anode, a cathode and an electrolyte membrane, the anode and the cathode being laminated on opposite sides of the electrolyte membrane, respectively. The separators are disposed on both surfaces of the cell structure with gas passages being defined by the separators and the cell structure for circulating two types of gas for power generation. The porous ribs porous ribs are disposed successively on an entire cross-section of the gas passage in a transverse direction with a flow direction of the gas for power generation.

Fuel cell

A fuel cell includes a membrane electrode assembly (); a first gas diffusion layer () having a first raised portion (); an anode side separator (); a second gas diffusion layer () having a second raised portion (); and a cathode side separator (). A fuel gas passage () formed by a first groove () and the first raised portion () has a first cross section (A), while an oxidation gas passage () formed by a second groove () and the second raised portion () has a second cross section (A). The first raised portion () and the second raised portion () are different from each other in scale, forming the first cross section (A) and the second cross section (A) different from each other.

Fuel cell having fuel and oxidation gas channels of different cross-sections

A fuel cell includes a membrane electrode assemblyand a bipolar platedisposed outside the membrane electrode assembly. The bipolar plateis porous, and has first gas passagesformed on the top surface through which gas is passed, second gas passagesformed on the undersurface through which gas is passed, communicating passageswhich allow the first gas passagesand second gas passagesto communicate, a gas inletconnected to one of the first gas passagesand second gas passagesfor supplying gas, and a gas outletconnected to the other of the first gas passagesand second gas passagesfor discharging gas.

Polymer electrolyte fuel cell

A fuel cell system is provided with a fuel cell body, a hydrogen supply system supplying hydrogen containing gas to the fuel cell body, an oxygen supply system supplying oxygen containing gas to the fuel cell body, a cooling system adjusting the temperature of the fuel cell body, a water circulation system supplying water to humidify the fuel cell body and collecting water discharged from the fuel cell body, a generated heat amount calculating section calculating a generated heat amount of the fuel cell body, a cooling performance calculating section calculating a cooling performance of the cooling system, a temperature calculating section calculating a fuel cell temperature of the fuel cell body on the basis of the generated heat amount and the cooling performance, a collected water amount calculating section calculating an amount of water collected from the water circulation system on the basis of the fuel cell temperature, and a collected water amount controlling section controlling the amount of collected water discharged from the fuel cell body on the basis of the amount of collected water.

Fuel cell system and method

Before warmup of a fuel cell stack () is complete, a cooling water pressure of the fuel cell stack () is suppressed lower than the pressure used when the fuel cell system is run in the steady state. In this way, when the system is started from a low temperature state, water in a cathode () and anode () flows efficiently into the cooling water passage (), and water clogging is prevented while maintaining a proper water balance in the fuel cell system.

Fuel cell system and its startup control

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell () having a water passage and passage for gas required for power generation, a first protection device () which prevents freezing of water in the fuel cell by maintaining the temperature of the fuel cell (), and a second protection device () which prevents freezing of water in the fuel cell by discharging the water in the fuel cell (). A controller () selects one of the first protection device () and the second protection device () as the protection device to be used when the fuel cell () has stopped, and the fuel cell () is protected from freezing of water by operating the selected protection device.

Fuel cell system, and method of protecting a fuel cell from freezing

An internal combustion engine includes a cylinder including at least one intake valve which is selectively open to allow at least air to enter the cylinder and at least one exhaust valve which is selectively open to allow residual gas escape from the cylinder after a firing event. An auto-ignition system for such an engine comprises a device communicably coupled with the cylinder. The device is, effective to allow an amount of high temperature and pressure residual gas to enter the cylinder in the compression stroke of an engine cycle after valve closure of the intake valve.

System and method for auto-ignition support

Controlling of an engine provided with a catalytic converter in an exhaust passage is executed during an idling operation of the engine to heat catalyst in the catalytic converter while permitting the self-ignition combustion mode to be performed in the engine when the catalyst is in a non-active condition, and when the temperature Te of the engine cooling water is higher than a predetermined threshold value Te , and to allow execution of the self-ignition combustion mode as well as the idling-stop function when the catalyst is in an active condition, and when the temperature Te of the engine cooling water is higher than a predetermined threshold value Te that is larger than the predetermined threshold value Te

Apparatus for and method of controlling a vehicle engine

A split injection of gasoline produces stratified charge in at least one cylinder. A sensor measures cylinder pressure or knock and generates a sensor signal indicative of combustion event timing of stratified charge. From the sensor signal, a controller determines an actual value of a characteristic parameter representing combustion event timing in the cylinder. The controller modifies at least one of operating variables governing a split injection for the subsequent cycle in such a direction as to decrease a deviation between the actual value of the characteristic parameter and a target value thereof toward zero.

Feedback control for auto-ignition two-stage combustion of gasoline in engine cylinder

An internal combustion engine has a fuel injection system capable of performing a multiple injection wherein a main injection event and a trigger injection event take place in this order in one cycle. With main injection, fuel is widely dispersed within a combustion chamber to create a main mixture for main combustion. With trigger injection, fuel is dispersed locally within the combustion chamber to create an ignitable mixture for auto-ignition. Auto-ignition of the ignitable mixture creates condition under which auto-ignition of the main mixture takes place. Fuel quantity and timing for each of main and trigger injections are varied corresponding to engine speed and load request to cause the main mixture to burn at a target crank angle after TDC of compression stroke.

Enhanced multiple injection for auto-ignition in internal combustion engines

A self-ignition combustion engine has a control unit that controls the temperature of the intake air such that the operating load range of compression self-ignition combustion is expanded. In operating regions where cooling the intake air results in an intake air temperature that is too low and an inability to conduct self-ignition operation, the temperature of the intake air is raised by directing intake air that has been supercharged by a supercharger to a bypass passage so that it does not pass through an inter-cooler.

Internal combustion engine

A system and method for controlling an internal combustion engine employs a split injection to create stratified air/fuel mixture charge. The stratified charge includes an ignitable air/fuel mixture portion around a spark plug within the surrounding lean air/fuel mixture and experiences a two-stage combustion. The first stage is combustion of the ignitable air/fuel mixture portion initiated by a spark produced by the spark plug, providing an additional increase of cylinder pressure. The second stage is auto-ignited combustion of the surrounding lean air/fuel mixture induced by such additional cylinder pressure increase. The system and method also employ generating a combustion event indicative (CEI) parameter related with combustion speed or ignition timing point of auto-ignition of auto-ignited combustion of the surrounding mixture, and determining control parameters of a spark timing controller and a fuel supply controller in response to the CEI parameter.

Combustion event indicative parameter dependent control for auto-ignited combustion

A fuel supply system has a fuel injector positioned to directly inject fuel into a combustion chamber, and it is capable of performing a split injection wherein a first fuel injection in each engine cycle precedes a second fuel injection that occurs during compression stroke in the same engine cycle. A spark plug produces a spark to ignite a first air/fuel mixture portion created due to the second fuel injection, initiating a first stage combustion. The first stage combustion raises temperature and pressure high enough to cause auto-ignition of a second air/fuel mixture portion surrounding the first air-fuel mixture portion, initiating a second stage combustion. This control is accomplished by varying at least one of a fuel injection timing of the first fuel injection, a fuel injection timing of the second fuel injection, spark timing, a proportion of fuel quantity of the second fuel injection to the total fuel injected in each engine cycle, and an EGR rate in response to at least one of engine speed and load.

System and method for enhanced combustion control in an internal combustion engine

An internal combustion engine is operated on auto-ignition combustion of fuel with low cetane number like gasoline. The engine has at least one cylinder and a reciprocating piston in the cylinder to define a combustion chamber. Combustion event in the cylinder is expressed in terms of two variables. They are main combustion timing (&thgr; ) and a main combustion period (&thgr; - ). The main combustion timing (&thgr; ) represents a crank position when mass burnt rate is 50 percent. The main combustion period (&thgr; - ) represents a period from a crank position when mass burnt is 20 percent to a crank position when mass burnt is 50 percent. Controlled parameters governing main combustion are varied to adjust the main combustion timing on an advance side of a retard limit (&thgr; max) and to adjust the main combustion period within a range between an upper limit (&thgr; - max) and a lower limit (&thgr; - min).

Auto-ignition combustion management in internal combustion engine

A system and method for widening auto-ignition range of a lean burn internal combustion engine employs stratified charge of exhaust gas content and air content. A fuel injection system carries out a first injection of gasoline fuel for dispersion within the air content, and a second injection of gasoline fuel for dispersion within the exhaust gas content. This intelligent injection of gasoline fuel accomplishes auto-ignition of gasoline fuel within the exhaust gas content over extended range of engine speed and load.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Koudai Yoshizawa