Kyocera Corporation

Dainichi Co., Ltd.

Kyosuke Yamauchi

Mitsutaka Shimada

Mitsuhiro Nakamura

Naoki Yokoo

Takayuki Maruyama

Tatsuya Kanbayashi

Hiroyuki Sato

Shinpei Shiraishi

Masaya Kawaguchi

Tatsuhiro Mure

Michitada Okada

Yutaro Sakata

Hidetaka Ikarashi

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell that generates power using a fuel gas and an oxygen-containing gas, a reformer including a vaporizing section and a reforming section, a raw fuel supply that supplies raw fuel, a reformed water supply that supplies reformed water, and a controller. The controller has multiple calculation formulas for calculating an amount of reformed water to be used in the reforming section in response to a requested power level from an external unit, and selects, based on an increase or a decrease in a requested current level from the external unit, a formula from the multiple calculation formulas in response to the increase in the requested current level, and a formula different from the formula to be selected for the increase from the multiple calculation formulas in response to the decrease in the requested current level.

Fuel cell system

A fuel cell apparatus includes a fuel cell module including a housing and a fuel cell housed in the housing, the fuel cell generating electric power with use of a fuel gas and an oxygen-containing gas; and a heat exchanger which carries out heat exchange between a medium and exhaust gas from the fuel cell module, the heat exchanger being arranged laterally to the housing.

Fuel cell apparatus

A fuel cell system includes a controller that controls an amount of air flow to be supplied from an air blower included in an oxygen-containing gas supply to a cell stack to cause a power level (in amperes) of a fuel cell controllable by a power level regulator (power conditioner) and an air utilization to have an increase-control section in which the air utilization increases in accordance with an increase in the power level of the fuel cell and a decrease-control section in which the air utilization decreases in accordance with an increase in the power level. The air utilization is a ratio of an air amount used by the fuel cell for power generation to an oxygen-containing gas (air) amount supplied to the fuel cell.

A fuel cell module may include: a cell stack device including a cell stack including an array of a plurality of fuel cells, a manifold which supplies a fuel gas to each of the fuel cells, and a reformer which reforms a raw fuel; an oxygen-containing gas flow channel through which the oxygen-containing gas flows; an oxygen-containing gas introduction plate which supplies the oxygen-containing gas to each of the plurality of fuel cells; a housing including a box body of which one side is opened to provide an opening and a lid (closed plate) which closes the opening; a gas pipe joint, an ignition heater, a thermocouple, etc. which are a plurality of insertion members inserted from an outside of the housing into an accommodation chamber, the respective insertion members being inserted through one surface (lid surface) of the housing.

Fuel cell module and fuel cell apparatus

A fuel cell module includes: a cell stack apparatus including a cell stack including an array of a plurality of fuel cells, a manifold which feeds a fuel gas to each of the fuel cells, and a reformer which reforms a raw fuel; an oxygen-containing gas introduction plate which feeds an oxygen-containing gas to each of the fuel cells; and a housing which houses the cell stack apparatus and the oxygen-containing gas introduction plate. The housing includes a box having an open side and a lid which closes the open side of the box, and the box has a length of the open side which is greater than a maximum length of a projected plane of the cell stack apparatus as viewed from a lateral side of the cell stack apparatus.

Fuel cell module, fuel cell apparatus, and fuel cell module manufacturing method

A cell stack device is provided with a cell stack comprising a plurality of cells, a manifold fixing an end of each cell of the plurality of cells thereto with a sealing material, and configured to allow a reaction gas to be supplied to each cell. An electrically conductive end member is disposed at an end portion of the cell stack in an arrangement direction of the cells, and suppressing deformation of each cell, such that a first end of the electrically conductive end member at a side of the manifold is separated from the manifold.

Cell stack device, module, and module housing device

In at least one sealing member () disposed between at least two neighboring cells of a plurality of cells () in this cell stack device, the angle &#x3b8; is 45&#xb0; or less, where the angle &#x3b8; is defined by an angle between a vertical line drawn from a leading end portion () of a meniscus structure toward a manifold () and a straight line connecting the leading end part () and a point () located on a profile line of a concave of the meniscus structure, and at a midpoint of a height of the leading end part () from the bottom part () of the concave, which makes it possible to obtain a cell stack device in which the occurrence of cracking at bonded parts between the fuel cells () and the sealing member () is suppressed and reliability is improved.

Growing community of inventors

Kirishima, Japan

Kyosuke Yamauchi