Nissan Motor Company Limited

Renault S.a.s.

Takahiro Kaito

Keigo Ikezoe

Hiroyuki Tanaka

Kazuki Arihara

Hisashi Mitsumoto

Seiho Sugawara

Tsukuru Ohwaki

Takahiro Fujii

Tetsuya Aoki

Mori Nagayama

Yoshitaka Uehara

Kentarou Yuge

Shota Yamazaki

In a coating evaluation device and a coating evaluation method, information on a coating is acquired. The information on a coating includes material information representing a material of a coating surface, and at least one of shape information representing a curved shape of the coating surface, and surface roughness information representing a surface roughness of the coating surface. An evaluation value that corresponds to a combination of the material information, the shape information, and the surface roughness information is estimated by using an evaluation model that outputs a brilliance evaluation value pertaining to the coating surface in response to an input including the material information, the shape information, and the surface roughness information.

Coating evaluation device and coating evaluation method

An object is to provide a catalyst particle that can exhibit high activity. The catalyst particle is an alloy particle formed of platinum atom and a non-platinum metal atom, wherein (i) the alloy particle has an L1structure as an internal structure and has an extent of ordering of L1structure in the range of 30 to 100%, (ii) the alloy particle has an LP ratio calculated by CO stripping method of 10% or more, and (iii) the alloy particle has a d/dratio in the range of 0.4 to 1.0.

Catalyst particle, and electrode catalyst, electrolyte membrane-electrode assembly, and fuel cell using the same

A fuel cell system and method that enables warm-up power generation corresponding to the residual water volume in the fuel cell stack without using auxiliary devices for measuring the residual water volume in the fuel cell stack. A controller computes total generated electrical energy Q by integrating of the generated current detected by current sensor during the period from start-up to shutting down of the fuel cell system, and stores the result in total generated electrical energy storage part. Also, controller measures fuel cell temperature Ts at the last shutting down cycle with temperature sensor, and stores it in power generation shutting down temperature storage part. When the fuel cell system is started, controller estimates residual water volume WR that remains in fuel cell stackon the basis of fuel cell temperature Ts when power generation is shut down, total generated electrical energy Q, and fuel cell start-up temperature Tn, and sets the generated electrical power for warm-up at start-up on the basis of said residual water volume Wr.

Fuel cell system and operating method therefor

A fuel cell system includes: a wetness target value calculating unit configured to calculate a target value of a wet state of the fuel cell; a gas required flow rate calculating unit configured to calculate a cathode gas required flow rate on the basis of a power generation request to the fuel cell; a wetness-control anode gas flow rate calculating unit configured to calculate a wetness-control anode gas circulation flow rate at least on the basis of the wetness target value and the cathode gas required flow rate during a dry control; an anode gas flow rate control unit configured to control an anode gas circulation flow rate on the basis of the wetness-control anode gas circulation flow rate; a wetness-control cathode gas flow rate calculating unit configured to calculate a wetness-control cathode gas flow rate at least on the basis of the wetness target value and a measured value or estimated value of the anode gas circulation flow rate during the dry control; and a cathode gas flow rate control unit configured to control a cathode gas flow rate on the basis of the cathode gas required flow rate and the wetness-control cathode gas flow rate.

Fuel cell system

A fuel cell system and a method for controlling the same. The system and method employ a fuel cell stack that generates electrical power by electrochemical reaction of a fuel gas and an oxidant gas, a total generated electrical energy computation device that computes a value pertaining to the total generated electrical energy as the sum of the electrical energy generated by said fuel cell stack from start-up of the fuel cell system, and a residual water volume estimation device that estimates the residual water volume left in the fuel cell stack based on said value pertaining to said total generated electrical energy computed by said total generated electrical energy computation device.

Fuel cell system and operation method thereof

A fuel cell system has an oxidizer gas flow rate adjuster that adjusts a flow rate of oxidizer gas of the fuel cell stack and a controller that determines a humidity state in the fuel cell stack. The controller has an average cell voltage calculator that calculates an average cell voltage, a minimum cell voltage calculator that calculates a minimum cell value, a voltage difference calculator that calculates a voltage difference between the average cell voltage and the minimum cell voltage, and a voltage comparator that compares the absolute voltage difference with a preset value. The flow rate of the oxidizer gas is changed based on a comparison between the absolute voltage difference and the preset value, and then the humidity state in the fuel cell stack is determined based on a change in the absolute voltage difference.

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack A cell voltage detector detects a cell voltage at a cathode outlet-side of a single cell. A total voltage detector detects a total voltage of the fuel cell stack. A cell voltage difference computing unit determines an average cell voltage and a minimum cell voltage and computes a difference A stack current detector detects electric current. An anode outlet local current detector detects a local current. A current density-computing unit computes a stack current density and an anode outlet local current density. A wet state-judging unit judges a wet state of the fuel cell stack based on the difference between the average cell voltage and the minimum cell voltage, and based on the difference between the stack current density and the anode outlet local current density.

Growing community of inventors

Yokosuka, Japan

Takahiro Kaito