Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Denso Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho

Cataler Industrial Co., Ltd.

Other

Exxon Research and Engineering Company

Katsuhiko Wakabayashi

Satoshi Iguchi

Toshiaki Tanaka

Kenji Katoh

Shinichi Takeshima

Tetsuro Kihara

Satoshi Aoyama

Shinya Hirota

Takamitsu Asanuma

Naoki Ito

Shizuo Sasaki

Kiyoshi Nakanishi

Hiromichi Sato

Tsukasa Abe

Takekazu Ito

Koichi Numata

Takashi Shimazu

Shinichi Matsumoto

Hideaki Muraki

Takaaki Kanazawa

Tatsuji Mizuno

Koichi Kasahara

Kazuya Kibe

Syuji Tateishi

Masahiko Iijima

Fumitada Murakami

Toshihide Nakata

Hidetaka Nohira

Shunsuke Toshioka

Hiroshi Aoki

Tokuta Inoue

Yasushi Araki

Satoshi Yamazaki

Shuichi Iwata

Masato Gotoh

Hiroyuki Mitsui

Shigeru Ogino

Kazuhiro Akihama

Yasuhiro Izawa

Yuya Okuda

Shuichi Kubo

Kazuhisa Kunitake

Jun Asada

Masato Goto

Satomi Seto

Takeshi Fujihara

Motohisa Saiki

Tsuneyuki Tanizawa

Makoto Taniguchi

Kenji Kimura

Hiroshi Okano

Takeshi Okumura

Walter Weissman

Naoto Miyoshi

Kiyoshi Kobashi

Takatoshi Masui

Toshiyasu Katsuno

Takanori Ueda

Yoshiki Chujo

Tadashi Suzuki

John E Johnston

Mikio Murachi

Jun Harada

Kiyoshi Yamazaki

Anthony M Dean

Tetsuya Yamashita

Kenshiro Hida

Masahiko Sugiyama

Keisuke Nagasaka

Shigenori Sakurai

Kunihiro Iwata

Akio Kitami

Takashi Hamatani

Takahiro Hayashi

Kenji Ohkubo

Kazuhiko Dohmae

Masahiro Kishida

Masahiro Taki

Tomohiro Oda

Keitaro Ishikawa

Shigeo Furuno

Hidetoshi Uchiyama

Takeshi Nishikawa

Keita Inoue

Yoshihiro Ohta

Kosuke Tokunaga

Mariko Adachi

Keizo Takamatsu

Hiromichi Satou

Hiroyuki Usami

Takashi c/o KK Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho Shimazu

Satoshi c/o KK Inter Project Shiokawa

Hiroyuki c/o KK Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho Mitsui

Hiroshi c/o KK Toyota Chuo Kenkyusho Aoki

A washer-equipped screw is provided with a screw body, a metal washer, and a rubber washer. The screw body includes a cylindrical portion between a shaft portion on which a screw groove is formed and a head portion. A hole in the metal washer is inserted through the cylindrical portion so as to be adjacent to the head portion. A hole in the rubber washer is inserted through the cylindrical portion and positioned on a shaft portion side of the metal washer. A seat surface of the head portion has an inclined surface inclined away from the metal washer toward an outer periphery thereof.

Washer-equipped screw

A washer-equipped screw is provided with a screw body, a flat washer, and a rubber washer. The screw body includes a cylindrical portion between a shaft portion on which a screw groove is formed and a head portion. A hole in the flat washer is inserted through the cylindrical portion so as to be adjacent to the head portion. A hole in the rubber washer is inserted through the cylindrical portion and positioned on a shaft portion side of the flat washer. The cylindrical portion is provided with a projection for engagingly locking the flat washer. An inner edge of the flat washer is caught by the projection, whereby the flat washer is prevented from detaching.

Two opening through which a refrigerant runs are connected by a first connecting pipe and a second connecting pipe. One end of the first connecting pipe is connected to a first opening by a planar seal. Another end of the first connecting pipe is connected to one end of a second connecting pipe by a shaft seal. Another end of the second connecting pipe is connected to a second opening by a planar seal. An axial direction of a shaft seal is perpendicular to a plane that includes the first opening.

Connection structure and inverter

An easy-to-assemble structure of a power converter includes a control circuit board, semiconductor modules with power terminals and control terminals extending therefrom, and a capacitor to smooth voltage to be applied to the semiconductor modules. The capacitor includes capacitor devices coupled to the power terminals and voltage measuring terminals joined to electrodes of the capacitor devices. The control terminals and the voltage measuring terminals extend in a direction normal to the surface of the control circuit board. This permits the connections of the voltage measuring terminals and the control terminals with the control circuit board to be achieved simultaneously by bringing them close to the control circuit board from the normal direction.

Easy-to-assemble structure of power converter

An electric power conversion apparatus includes first and second electric power conversion devices and a housing. The first and second electric power conversion devices are arranged to overlap each other in an overlap direction. The housing receives both the first and second electric power conversion devices therein. The housing has a partition wall that extends between the first and second electric power conversion devices to partition the housing into first and second parts in which the first and second electric power conversion devices are respectively received. The partition wall has a coolant passage formed therein, thereby allowing a coolant to flow through the coolant passage.

Electric power conversion apparatus

The present invention provides a hydrogen-generating apparatus in which the reduction in reforming efficiency associated with an increase in switching frequency to the regeneration reaction can be suppressed, and generation of hydrogen by reforming can stably be performed. In the reforming reaction, a cathode offgas discharged from a hydrogen-separation-membrane fuel cellhaving a hydrogen-permeating film is supplied to PSR reformersand, in which the reforming reaction and the regeneration reaction are performed alternately.

Hydrogen-generating apparatus and fuel cell system

Fuel cellsof the invention are operable at a temperature of about 500&#xb0; C. The unit cell has a solid oxide electrolyte layer formed on a hydrogen separable metal layer. An anode has a catalyst supported thereon to accelerate a reforming reaction of methane. A fuel gas is produced by reforming a hydrocarbon-containing material in a reformer. Setting a lower reaction temperature enables production of the fuel gas containing both methane and hydrogen. In the fuel cellsreceiving a supply of the fuel gas, the reforming reaction of methane contained in the fuel gas proceeds simultaneously with consumption of hydrogen contained in the fuel gas. This methane reforming reaction is endothermic to absorb heat produced in the process of power generation and thereby equalizes the operation temperature of the fuel cells

Fuel cell system

A hydrogen fuel feeding system of a fuel cell system that has: a switching device for switching a reactor, that can carry out a reforming process and a regeneration process, between alternate statuses of a first status of feeding a reactant to the reactor while exhausting a fuel gas and a second status of feeding a gas for regeneration to the reactor while exhausting a regeneration exhaust gas; and a control apparatus for switching the switching device so that residual reforming gas, which is still remaining in the reactor before switching, is combusted in an exhaust air processor and not exhausted as the residual reforming gas without treatment when switching from the first status to the second status.

Hydrogen fuel feeding system and fuel cell system

An exhaust emission control system of an internal combustion engine desorbs SOby reversing a flow of an exhaust gas through an NOstorage-reduction catalyst, of which a structure is simplified as follows. A first exhaust pipe connected to an engine is connected to a first port of an emission switching valve having four ports. A second exhaust pipe, through which the exhaust gas is discharged into the atmospheric air, is connected to a second port, a third exhaust pipe connected to an inlet of a catalytic converter is connected to a third port. A fourth exhaust pipe connected to an outlet of the catalytic converteris connected to a fourth port. When the emission switching valve is set in a forward flow position, the first exhaust pipe is connected to the third exhaust pipe, and the second exhaust pipe is connected to the fourth exhaust pipe, whereby the exhaust gas flows toward the outlet from the inlet within the catalytic converter. When the emission switching valve is set in a backward flow position, the first exhaust pipe is connected to the fourth exhaust pipe, and the second exhaust pipe is connected to the third exhaust pipe, whereby the exhaust gas flows toward the inlet from the outlet within the catalytic converter.

Exhaust emission control system of an internal combustion engine

An electrolyte layer () and a hydrogen-permeable metal layer () are fitted in a fitting portion () of a low thermal expansion member (), and a cathode electrode () is provided on the electrolyte layer (). Gas separators () are provided such that a low thermal expansion member () is held between the gas separators (). Since the low thermal expansion member () is made of metal which has a thermal expansion coefficient lower than that of the hydrogen-permeable metal layer (), thermal expansion of the hydrogen-permeable metal layer () can be suppressed. Accordingly, it is possible to reduce shear stress applied to an interface between the electrolyte layer () and the hydrogen-permeable metal layer () due to the thermal expansion. It is possible to suppress separation of the electrolyte layer () from the hydrogen-permeable metal layer () and occurrence of a crack in the electrolyte layer ().

Membrane-electrode assembly and fuel cell

A fuel cell of the invention has a hydrogen permeable metal layer, which is formed on a plane of an electrolyte layer that has proton conductivity and includes a hydrogen permeable metal. The fuel cell includes a higher temperature zone and a lower temperature zone that has a lower temperature than the higher temperature zone. The hydrogen permeable metal layer includes a lower temperature area A corresponding to the lower temperature zone and a higher temperature area B corresponding to the higher temperature zone. The lower temperature area A and the higher temperature area B have different settings of composition and/or layout of components. This arrangement effectively prevents potential deterioration of cell performance due to an uneven distribution of internal temperature of the fuel cell including the hydrogen permeable metal layer.

Fuel cell

A fuel reforming apparatus includes a reforming catalyst, a filtering member, a raw material supply flow passage and a processed gas flow passage. The filtering member has a plurality of cells. A reforming catalyst is carried on a surface of a partition on the side of the processed gas flow passage. If raw gas including hydrocarbon fuel is supplied to the fuel reforming apparatus and filtered by the filtering member, soot included in the raw gas is trapped by gaps in the partition, and the hydrocarbon fuel is reformed into reformed gas including hydrogen and carbon monoxide on the reforming catalyst. By increasing the amount of air supplied from a blower at intervals of time, the soot trapped by the partition is removed by combustion.

Fuel reforming apparatus and method of controlling the fuel reforming apparatus

A power system of the invention includes fuel cells and a fuel gas generation system that generates a fuel gas to be supplied to the fuel cells. At the time of stopping supply of hydrogen, the fuel gas generation system selectively uses a stop process that replaces hydrogen in a hydrogen separator unit with the air for removal of hydrogen and a pause process that allows hydrogen to remain in the hydrogen separator unit. The stop process is selected when the fuel gas generation system stops the supply of hydrogen for a long time period. The pause process is selected when the fuel gas generation system temporarily stops the supply of hydrogen. The arrangement of the invention desirably shortens a restart time of the fuel gas generation system and reduces a potential energy loss.

Drive control of power system including fuel cells

The invention provides an electrolyte membrane that allows an operating temperature of a solid polymer membrane fuel cell to be raised and an operating temperature of a solid oxide fuel cell to be lowered. This electrolyte membrane can be used in a fuel cell that is operable in an intermediate temperature range. The invention also provides a fuel cell using such an electrolyte membrane. The electrolyte membrane has a hydrated electrolyte layer, and dense layers made of a hydrogen permeable material that are formed on both sides of this electrolyte layer. Both sides of the electrolyte membrane are coated with dense layers. Consequently, evaporation of moisture contained in the electrolyte layer is suppressed, and increase in the resistance of the membrane is inhibited. As a result, the range of the operating temperature of the fuel cell can be enlarged.

Electrolyte membrane for fuel cell operable in medium temperature range, fuel cell using the same, and manufacturing methods therefor

For a reforming device that generates fuel gas for fuel cells by decomposing hydrocarbon compounds such as natural gas and then using a hydrogen separation composite to selectively transmit hydrogen, a hydrogen separation composite having the following structure is used. A porous support medium made of ceramics, etc. is formed, and a hydrogen separation metal is supported in the pores so as to fill the inside of the support medium. It is also possible to support a reforming catalyst. By doing this, it is possible to increase the area at which the hydrogen separation metal contacts gas, so the hydrogen transmission performance is increased. Furthermore, to prevent raw material gas leaks due to pin holes, high pressure gas is supplied to the hydrogen extraction side, and the total pressure is made higher than the pressure on the raw material gas supply side without making the hydrogen partial pressure higher. By using these means, it is possible to increase the hydrogen separation performance for the reforming device and to make the device more compact.

Device forming fuel gas for fuel cell and composite material for hydrogen separation

Growing community of inventors

Mishima, Japan

Satoshi Iguchi