Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Asmo Co., Ltd.

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho

Nippon Soken, Inc.

Hitachi Cable, Inc.

Manabu Kato

Kazutaka Kimura

Hideyuki Kumei

Shuya Kawahara

Naoki Takehiro

Hiroko Kimura

Hiroo Yoshikawa

Masaaki Shimizu

Kenji Tsubosaka

Yu Morimoto

Fusayoshi Miura

Kensaku Kodama

Michihito Tanaka

Hideo Naohara

Yuichi Orikasa

Toshiyuki Suzuki

Takashi Aoyama

Yoshikazu Hayakawa

Tomiya Abe

Katsuhiko Torii

Hidenori Ishihara

Hiroaki Yamamoto

Tsuyoshi Maruo

Hiroki Okabe

Naoki Hasegawa

Masaya Kawasumi

Hitoshi Hamada

Ryousuke Sakamaki

Hirokazu Tsuda

Tatsuya Ohtaka

Tsutomu Ochi

Masaru Tsunokawa

Haruyuki Aono

Kazuma Shibata

Tomoaki Uchiyama

Yasuhiro Fukatsu

Toshiaki Kusakari

Hajime Murata

Akira Yamaura

Kazuyori Yamada

Eishiro Toyoda

Tomohiro Takeshita

Hisayoshi Ota

First, a reaction gas is supplied to a fuel cell stack including a laminate of solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells and power generation is performed so that a temperature of the fuel cell stack reaches 65&#xb0; C. or higher (heating power generation step). Next, the reaction gas is supplied to the fuel cell stack and the power generation is performed under a condition in which relative humidity is 100% or more (cleaning power generation step). Cooling water of room temperature may be supplied to the fuel cell stack from the outside before the cleaning power generation step is performed after the heating power generation step is completed, or after the cleaning power generation step is completed (quenching step).

Method of running-in operation of fuel cell

A fuel cell stack includes: a membrane electrode assembly; and first and second separators joined to each other, wherein first and third fluid groove portions face each other in a stacking direction in which the membrane electrode assembly and the first and second separators are stacked, second and fourth fluid groove portions face each other in the stacking direction, and first and second coolant groove portions face each other in the stacking direction and define a common coolant flow path.

Fuel cell stack having improved joining strength between separators

A fuel cell includes: a membrane electrode assembly; and a separator disposed on one side of the membrane electrode assembly, wherein the separator includes flow path grooves through which reactant gas flows between the separator and the membrane electrode assembly, the flow path grooves include: wavy grooves wavily extending in a first direction and arranged in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction; and a linear groove linearly extending in the first direction, the wavy grooves include: a first wavy groove located closest to the linear groove among the wavy grooves; and a second wavy groove located opposite to the linear groove with respect to the first wavy groove, and amplitude of the first wavy groove is smaller than that of the second wavy groove.

Fuel cell

A production method for a fuel cell membrane-electrode assembly which may include the steps of preparing a catalyst ink that contains a metal catalyst nanoparticle of 0.3 nm to 100 nm in primary particle diameter which is not supported on a support, an electrolyte resin, and a water-based solvent and forming a non-supported-catalyst containing catalyst layer by using the catalyst ink, as a catalyst layer that is included in at least one of a fuel electrode side and an oxidant electrode side in the fuel cell membrane-electrode assembly that has a fuel electrode at one surface side of an electrolyte membrane, and an oxidant electrode at another surface side of the electrolyte membrane.

Fuel cell membrane-electrode assembly and production method therefor

A fuel cell system includes an accumulated current value measuring unit. The accumulated current value measuring unit measures an accumulated current value by time integration of current output from the fuel cell in a period during which oxygen is produced by water-splitting reaction in an anode of a negative voltage cell. A control unit uses a first correlation between the accumulated current value in the oxygen generation period and an oxygen consumption rate in the anode and a second correlation between a current density of the fuel cell in the oxygen generation period and an oxygen production rate in the anode to obtain a current density at or below which the amount of oxygen in the anode may be reduced, and causes the fuel cell to output electric power at a current density lower than the obtained current density.

Fuel cell system and control method therefor

A fuel cell includes: a membrane-electrode assembly in which electrode catalyst layers are formed on two sides of an electrolyte membrane; and a cerium-containing layer that is formed at an outer side of at least one of the two surfaces of the membrane-electrode assembly, and that contains a cerium-containing oxide in an amount that is greater than 5 wt % and less than or equal to 30 wt % where 100 wt % is an amount of solid components except the cerium-containing oxide which form the cerium-containing layer.

A fuel cell system and a control method therefor are provided. The fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell formed of a plurality of stacked power generating elements; a cell voltage measuring unit detecting negative voltage in any one of the power generating elements; a control unit controlling electric power output from the fuel cell; and an accumulated current value measuring unit measuring an accumulated current value obtained by time integration of current output from the fuel cell. The control unit prestores a correlation between accumulated current values and current densities that are allowable for the fuel cell in a period during which negative voltage is generated. When negative voltage has been detected, the control unit executes output restricting process of restricting electric power output from the fuel cell so as to fall within an operation allowable range defined by the accumulated current values and current densities of the correlation.

Methods and systems for controlling power output of a fuel cell

A fuel cell system has a fuel cell that includes at least one cell with an electrolyte membrane, an index value acquirer and a controller. The index value acquirer obtains a temperature index value correlated to temperature of a short circuit area in each cell. The controller controls a control parameter of the fuel cell affecting the temperature of the short circuit area, such that the temperature index value is within a predetermined range set to make the temperature of the short circuit area lower than a decomposition temperature of the electrolyte membrane.

Controlling fuel cell

A particle size distribution creating method includes a particle size range determining step, an integrating step of integrating the frequency of appearance of particles within the particle size range determined in the particle size range determining step, a division point determining step of determining particle sizes that provide division points, using the integral of the frequency of appearance obtained in the integrating step, and a typical point determining step of determining the minimum particle size, maximum particle size and the particle sizes of the division points as typical points. This method is characterized by assuming a particle size distribution which contains particles having the particle sizes of the respective typical points and is plotted such that the frequency of appearance of the particles having the particle size of each of the typical points is equal to the integral over each of the regions defined by the typical points, and obtaining the assumed particle size distribution as a particle size distribution model.

Method of predicting degradation of fuel cell catalyst using the method of creating particle size distribution model

A fuel cell system and an abnormality detecting method therefore is provided. The fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell that includes at least one fuel-cell cell having an anode, a cathode and an electrolyte membrane, an anode-side passage supplying and exhausting fuel gas to and from the anode, a cathode-side passage supplying and exhausting oxidation gas to and from the cathode, a voltage detecting unit detecting a fuel cell voltage, a suppressing unit setting a suppression state where, after terminating normal power generation, introduction of the fuel and oxidation gas to the anode-side and cathode-side passages and emission of the fuel and oxidation gas from the anode-side and cathode-side passages to outsides are suppressed as compared with those during the normal power generation; and an abnormality detecting unit, after setting the suppression state, detecting abnormality of the fuel cell system based on the detected voltage or a variation thereof.

Fuel cell system and method of detecting abnormality of fuel cell system

A fuel cell system and an abnormality detecting method therefor is provided. The fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell that includes at least one fuel-cell cell having an anode, a cathode and an electrolyte membrane, an anode-side passage supplying and exhausting fuel gas to and from the anode, a cathode-side passage supplying and exhausting oxidation gas to and from the cathode, a voltage detecting unit detecting a fuel cell voltage, a suppressing unit setting a suppression state where, after terminating normal power generation, introduction of the fuel and oxidation gas to the anode-side and cathode-side passages and emission of the fuel and oxidation gas from the anode-side and cathode-side passages to outsides are suppressed as compared with those during the normal power generation; and an abnormality detecting unit, after setting the suppression state, detecting abnormality of the fuel cell system based on the detected voltage or a variation thereof.

In a fuel cell system, a controller is programmed to control a first gas supply mechanism to deliver a first gas containing a fuel gas to a cathode in a pre-stop process performed at a system stop of the fuel cell system. The controller is programmed to control the first gas supply mechanism to stop the delivery of the first gas in a first state where a partial pressure difference between an anode and the cathode with respect to at least the fuel gas of remaining gases in the anode and in the cathode is reduced to or below a preset reference value.

Fuel cell system and method of stopping fuel cell system

A fuel cell membrane-electrode assembly having a fuel electrode and an oxidant electrode has a non-supported-catalyst containing catalyst layer that contains a metal catalyst nanoparticle of 0.3 nm to 100 nm in primary particle diameter that is not supported on a support, and an electrochemically active surface area of the metal catalyst nanoparticle is 10 m/g to 150 m/g, and a layer thickness of the non-supported-catalyst containing catalyst layer is less than or equal to 10 &#x3bc;m.

A fuel cell system having a fuel cell includes a power generation-time gas supplier that supplies hydrogen-containing fuel gas to an anode of the fuel cell and supplies an oxygen-containing oxidizing gas to a cathode of the fuel cell during power generation of the fuel cell. The fuel cell system also includes an anode potential rise information acquirer that acquires anode potential rise information, which represents information regarding a status of an anode potential rise of the fuel cell, after termination of supplies of the fuel gas and the oxidizing gas by the power generation-time gas supplier. The fuel cell system further includes an anode morphology variation deriver that derives an anode morphology variation representing a degree of a morphology change of a catalyst metal included in the anode, based on the anode potential rise information.

Fuel cell system

Method of controlling fuel cell using the method of predicting degradation of fuel cell catalyst

Growing community of inventors

Susono, Japan

Manabu Kato