Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Takahide Izutani

Keigo Suematsu

Tatsuaki Yokoyama

Kaoru Ohtsuka

Katsuhiko Oshikawa

Shuji Hirakata

Atsushi Matsuba

Suehiro Yamazaki

Masaaki Matsusue

Osamu Yumita

Hidemi Onaka

Kouichi Hoshi

Hiroshi Fujitani

Mamoru Yoshioka

Keiichiro Aoki

Akinori Osanai

Koji Morita

Katsuhiko Hirose

Nobuaki Kayanuma

Nobuo Watanabe

Nobuyuki Kitamura

Kouichi Osawa

Yukihiro Sonoda

Michio Furuhashi

Hironori Bessho

Hiromi Tanaka

Kenichi Nomura

Syuuji Hirakata

Hiroyuki Sawamoto

Takumi Kuwahara

Shinsuke Inagaki

An exhaust state control device for a fuel cell for a mobile unit includes an exhaust gas temperature sensor () that measures the temperature of exhaust gas in a discharge passage that discharges the exhaust gas from the main body of the fuel cell, and an ambient temperature sensor (A) that measures the temperature of ambient air to which exhaust gas is to be discharged. If, based on the difference between the exhaust gas temperature and the ambient temperature, it is determined that white smoke is generated, it is determined whether a condition to reduce white smoke is satisfied. When a first condition is satisfied, a process to reduce white smoke is activated. When a second condition, which requires further reduction of white smoke than under the first condition, is satisfied, a process to suppress the generation of white smoke is activated.

Exhaust state control device for fuel cell for mobile unit

Disclosed is a hydrogen supply apparatus which can mix an odorant with hydrogen gas even at a low temperature and can detect the leakage of the hydrogen gas. The apparatus comprises a gas storage means for storing hydrogen gas therein, an odorant-addition means for adding an odorant to the hydrogen gas fed from the gas storage means, and a temperature control means for controlling the temperature of at least one of the hydrogen gas stored in the gas storage means, the hydrogen gas fed from the gas storage means and the odorant.

Hydrogen supply apparatus and fuel gas supply apparatus

A fuel cell system has an apparatus sending gas to the fuel cell; a part calculating an amount of residual water in the fuel cell system based on an operating and an environmental condition; a part judging whether at least one state quantity value that includes a generating duration of the fuel cell, an amount of electric power generated, and an amount of temperature change of a coolant is equal to or less than a prescribed threshold value; a part calculating a sending apparatus operating time for decreasing the residual water amount to a prescribed value; and a control part operating the gas sending apparatus until the end of the operating time, wherein the operating time calculating part calculates a different operating time depending on whether one of the state quantity values is equal to or less than a prescribed threshold value.

Fuel cell system and method to prevent freezing after shut-down

A vehicle equipped with a fuel cell recognizes an external characteristic of a following mobile unit. Corresponding to the recognized characteristic, the vehicle controls the permission, the amount and the prohibition of discharge of the water produced along with electricity generation of the fuel cell.

Fuel cell-equipped vehicle and control method for fuel cell-equipped vehicle

The present invention provides a technology related to a fuel cell system capable of adjusting a discharge amount of an odorant discharged to an outside of a moving body according to a state of the moving body. The fuel cell system mounted to a moving body includes: a fuel cell which generates electric power by electrochemically reacting a hydrogen gas with an oxidation gas; and a adjusting portion which adjusts an amount of an odorant to be discharged to an outside of the moving body according to a state of the moving body, the odorant being included in an anode off-gas discharged from an anode side of the fuel cell.

Fuel cell system

It is an object of the present invention to provide a fuel cell system that is capable of sensing unintended gas leakage from a discharge control means based on odor. A fuel cell system is provided with a bypass passageconnecting a fuel offgas passageat inlet of a odorant removal unitto the fuel offgas passagein the vicinity of outlet of the odorant removal unit, and the fuel cell system facilitates the removal of odor from the discharged fuel offgas, by closing a bypass valvein conjunction with opening a purge valve, and suppresses the removal of odor, by opening the bypass valvein conjunction with stop of discharge of fuel offgas caused by closing the purge valve

Under normal conditions, the temperature of an oxygen ion-conductive element provided in a sensor body is about 700&deg; C., and the element impedance is about 30 &OHgr;. If there is a fault in the sensor body or a sensor body drive circuit, the current becomes zero and the element impedance becomes infinite. If a heater has deteriorated, the element temperature rises only up to, for example, about 550&deg; C., and the element impedance becomes about 150 &OHgr;. If there is a fault in the heater or the heater drive circuit, the element is heated only by exhaust gas, so that the element temperature rises only up to about the temperature of exhaust gas and the element impedance becomes a value corresponding to an element temperature of about 300&deg; C. Three reference values Z1, Z2, Z3 are set for comparison with the detected value of element impedance in order to perform fault diagnosis.

Air-fuel ratio detecting apparatus and method

In an evaporated fuel treatment device for an internal combustion engine, various parameters indicating that an engine is currently in a state where a fuel vapor is generated from a fuel tank are detected from moment to moment to estimate in advance that the amount of the fuel vapor is generated more than a capacity of the canister. Then, the purge from the canister is promoted on the basis of that estimation so that the fuel vapor of more than the capacity of canister is prevented from being adsorbed by the canister. With this structure, the overflow of the fuel vapor from the canister is prevented, and also the evaporative emission is suppressed.

Evaporation fuel treating device for an internal combustion engine

In an engine mounted on a hybrid vehicle, even in an atmosphere that readily cools down a catalyst by relatively low-temperature gaseous exhausts, for example, under a fuel cut control, the structure of the invention quickly warms up the catalyst and maintains a conversion efficiency of the gaseous exhausts at a high level. When it is determined that an engine is in operation and the fuel cut control is being performed, a reflux valve is turned on to reflux the gaseous exhausts into an intake conduit. This control procedure enables the relatively low-temperature gaseous exhausts to be refluxed to the intake conduit, instead of flowing into the catalyst, thereby preventing the catalyst from being cooled down.

Catalyst temperature control apparatus for hybrid vehicle

In an engine mounted on a hybrid vehicle, even in an atmosphere that readily cools down a catalyst by relatively low-temperature gaseous exhausts, for example, under a fuel cut control, the structure of the invention quickly warms up the catalyst and maintains a conversion efficiency of the gaseous exhausts at a high level. When it is determined that an engine 10 is in operation and the fuel cut control is being performed, a reflux valve is turned on to reflux the gaseous exhausts into an intake conduit. This control procedure enables the relatively low-temperature gaseous exhausts to be refluxed to the intake conduit, instead of flowing into the catalyst, thereby preventing the catalyst from being cooled down.

An engine control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle reduces a shock and improves the fuel consumption rate when an engine is under a fuel cut control at the time of reducing a speed through an operation of a brake pedal. In case that all conditions are fulfilled, that is, the fuel cut control, the speed reduction of not less than a predetermined level, and the non-full charge state of a battery, the program locks an intake valve and an exhaust valve in full open position and carries out a regenerative control with a generator 14. This procedure enables a cylinder to be connected with an intake air conduit and an exhaust conduit via the passages of the intake valve and the exhaust valve, thereby preventing compression of a gas in the cylinder and effectively reducing friction.

Engine pumping loss control apparatus for locking intake or exhaust

A trouble-detection apparatus for an EGR system provided with an EGR control valve in an EGR passage, capable of correctly detecting a position in the EGR passage at which the clogging has occurred. The trouble-detection apparatus is applied to the system having the EGR control valve controlled by a negative pressure in the EGR passage wherein a lift amount of the EGR control valve is controlled by a lift sensor in a feedback manner in accordance with the operating state of the engine. According to the trouble-detection apparatus, the amplitude of the lift amount detected by the lift sensor is obtained and the pulses in the exhaust-gas flow are calculated from the detected amplitude. When the amplitude of the pulses in the exhaust-gas flow does not reach a threshold value preset in accordance with the operating state of the internal combustion engine, it is determined that clogging as occurred in the EGR passage. In such a case, it is also possible to determine whether or not the clogging has occurred in the EGR passage by dividing the lift amount detected by the lift sensor into two subsystems, extracting solely a pulse component therefrom, calculating an amplitude of the extracted pulse component, and comparing the calculated amplitude with a threshold value.

Apparatus for detecting trouble in exhaust-gas recirculation system

In the EGR system having an EGR control valve in an EGR passage, an orifice is provided on the exhaust side of the EGR control valve to define a negative pressure chamber between the EGR control valve and the orifice, and the pressure in the negative pressure chamber can be detected by a pressure-detector. When the operation state of the internal combustion engine is in a first operation zone wherein the amount of EGR is larger than a predetermined value, it is determined that clogging has occurred in the intake side EGR passage if the pressure value detected by the pressure-detector is smaller than a preset negative pressure value; while, it is determined that clogging has occurred in the exhaust side EGR passage if the pressure value detected by the pressure-detector is larger than the predetermined negative pressure value. An ON/OFF type pressure switch may be used as the pressure-detection means 17. As a result, it is possible to accurately detect the clogging position in the EGR passage without an increase in cost.

Method and apparatus for detecting trouble in exhaust-gas recirculation

In a double air-fuel ratio sensor system having three-way catalysts, a full O.sub.2 storage amount of the three-way catalysts is estimated and compared with a predetermined amount. When the estimated full O.sub.2 storage amount is smaller than the predetermined amount, the three-way catalysts are determined to have deteriorated.

Growing community of inventors

Susono, Japan

Takahide Izutani