Nissan Motor Company Limited

Tetsuya Kamihara

Kenichi Goto

Takashi Iimori

Ryoichi Shimoi

Hitoshi Igarashi

Nobutaka Takahashi

Yoshiki Sekiya

Masanobu Sakai

Kenji Yonekura

Eiji Aiyoshizawa

Takashi c/o Nissan Motor Co Ltd Intellectual Property Department Iimori

An internal resistance measurement device for stacked battery includes an AC power supply part for outputting an AC current to an measurement-object, which includes at least a stacked battery made of a plurality of stacked power generating elements, by being connected to the measurement-object, an AC adjusting part for adjusting an AC current so that a positive-electrode AC potential difference, which is a potential difference obtained by subtracting potential in a middle portion from potential in a portion connected to a load device on the positive side of the measurement-object, matches a negative-electrode AC potential difference, which is a potential difference obtained by subtracting potential in the middle portion from potential in a portion connected to the load device on the negative side of the measurement-object, and a resistance calculating part for calculating resistance of the battery based on the adjusted AC current and the AC potential difference.

Internal resistance measurement device and method for stacked battery

A fuel cell system can be initiated in shorter time while minimizing the deterioration of a fuel cell. The fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack having a fuel electrode, an oxidizer electrode and an electrolyte membrane disposed there between, the fuel cell producing electricity by an electrochemical reaction of a fuel gas and an oxidizer gas, which are supplied to the fuel electrode and the oxidizer electrode, respectively; a fuel gas supplying device for supplying the fuel gas to the fuel cell stack; an oxidizer gas supplying device for supplying the oxidizer gas to the fuel cell stack; a current controlling device for extracting a current from the fuel cell stack; and a voltage sensor disposed in at least two of the fuel cell stacks. A controller controls the current controlling device such that a minimum voltage, which is obtained from the voltage sensor after a fuel gas is supplied to the fuel electrode without supplying the oxidizer gas to the oxidizer electrode at the time of initiating, becomes zero volts or more. Then, the oxidizer gas is supplied to the oxidizer to start producing electricity.

Fuel cell system having decreased deterioration during initiation

A fuel cell system and method of controlling a fuel cell system capable of preventing deterioration in performance when the system reinitiates a normal operation from an idle stop state. For a predetermined time after reinitiating the supply of fuel gas and oxidant gas from the idle stop state, discharge of off-gas occurs and the cessation of fuel gas and oxidant gas supply is prohibited.

Fuel cell system

A fuel cell system including: a fuel cell supplied with a fuel gas to a fuel electrode thereof and air to an air electrode thereof; a fuel gas supplying device which supplies the fuel gas to the fuel electrode; an air supplying device which supplies air to the air electrode; a fuel gas pressure regulator which regulates fuel gas pressure at the fuel electrode; a purge valve which discharges exhaust fuel gas from the fuel electrode to the outside; and a controller. The controller continues power generation of the fuel cell, controlling the fuel gas pressure regulator to lower the fuel gas pressure at the fuel electrode, having the air supplying device continuing supplying air to the air electrode with the purge valve closed; and after the fuel gas pressure at the fuel electrode becomes equal to or lower than the atmospheric pressure, stops power generation of the fuel cell.

An aspect of the present invention provides a fuel cell system that includes a fuel cell stack () configured to provide electric power or electric current, a cooling unit () configured to cool the fuel cell stack () by flowing a coolant through a coolant passage () provided in the fuel cell stack (), an inlet temperature detecting unit () configured to detect the temperature of the coolant at the inlet of the fuel cell stack (), and a control unit () configured to control the electric power or electric current extracted from the fuel cell stack () in accordance with the coolant temperature detected by the inlet temperature detecting unit ().

A fuel cell system (S) is provided with a fuel cell () supplied with hydrogen gas and oxidizing gas, a gas supply line () supplying the hydrogen gas to the fuel cell, a gas exhaust line () passing exhaust hydrogen gas expelled from the fuel cell with the exhaust hydrogen gas being able to contain nitrogen, a gas recirculation line () recirculating the exhaust hydrogen gas to the fuel cell at an upstream thereof, a purge valve () adapted to discharge the exhaust hydrogen gas, containing the nitrogen, to an outside, and a controller () operative to close the purge valve when judgment is made that a flow rate of the exhaust hydrogen gas passing through the purge valve during an opened state of the purge valve is equal to or greater than a predetermined value.

Fuel cell system and related method

A fuel cell system that has a fuel cell stack with a plurality of laminated cells, each of the laminated cells includes an electrolyte membrane interposed between a fuel electrode receiving a supply of fuel gas and an oxidizing agent electrode receiving a supply of oxidizing agent gas. A fuel gas supply device supplies a fuel gas to the fuel electrode. An oxidizing agent gas supply device supplies an oxidizing agent gas to the oxidizing agent electrode. A fuel electrode side discharge system discharges a discharge gas from the fuel electrode to an external. A circulation device re-circulates the discharge gas discharged from the fuel electrode into an upstream side of the fuel electrode. A voltage limit device limits a voltage across the fuel cell stack by drawing a current from the fuel cell stack at a time of an activation of the fuel cell system. A controller halts the supply of the oxidizing agent gas to the oxidizing agent electrode from the oxidizing agent gas supply device at the time of the activation of the fuel cell system, inhibits a discharge of the discharge gas to the external through the fuel electrode side discharge system, and starts the supply of fuel gas to the fuel electrode from the fuel gas supply device in a state where the discharge gas is circulated through the circulation device.

Fuel cell system comprising a voltage limit device

A fuel cell system which includes: a fuel cell (); a supply system (Sc) for supplying fuel gas to the fuel cell (); a recirculation system (Rc) for recirculating unused fuel gas from the fuel cell (), in which the fuel gas therein may contain nitrogen; a purge valve () for purging nitrogen contained in the fuel gas in the recirculation system (Rc); and a controller () for adjusting a valve opening of the purge valve () so that a nitrogen concentration of the fuel gas in the recirculation system (Rc) is kept constant.

Fuel cell system with recirculation system and purge valve

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack comprising an anode (fuel electrode) and a cathode (oxidizer electrode), and a system startup run is conducted at the system startup to bring the fuel cell stack into a power extractable state (idle state). In the fuel cell system, air supply flow is controlled so that air in an amount larger than a reference flow required to bring the fuel cell stack into the power extractable state, is supplied to the cathode over a preset time from the start of air supply to the cathode, by estimating an amount of hydrogen present on the cathode, deciding an air supply flow increment to commensurate with the estimated hydrogen amount, and controlling an air supply flow, whereby air at a flow rate provided by adding the decided increment to the reference flow, is supplied to the cathode during the system startup run, thereby allowing to effectively restrict a disadvantage in that a high concentration of hydrogen is wasted during the system startup run, without deteriorating the efficiency of the fuel cell system.

A fuel cell system (FS) is provided with a fuel cell () having a fuel electrode () and an oxidizer electrode (), disposed in opposition thereto, between which an electrolyte membrane () is sandwiched, a fuel gas supply source () supplying fuel gas to the fuel cell through a fuel gas supply passage (), a fuel gas discharge section () discharging the fuel gas, discharged from the fuel cell, to an outside of a fuel cell system, and a control section () executing fuel gas substituting treatment such that, during startup of the fuel cell system, the fuel gas is discharged outside the fuel cell system through the fuel gas discharge section while supplying the fuel gas so as to cause a state quantity of the fuel gas, to be supplied to the fuel cell from the fuel gas supply source, to be constant for thereby allowing the fuel gas passage and the fuel electrode to be substituted with the fuel gas.

Fuel cell system and related startup method

An exhaust gas purifying device which is provided with catalytic converter and a fuel injector which are disposed upstream of a particulate matter trap. The fuel injection injects fuel to the catalytic converter to rise exhaust gas temperature by its oxidation reaction heat when the exhaust gas temperature is slightly lower than a predetermined regeneration temperature. Further, a closable bypass passage is communicated with the passage between the catalytic converter and the trap and functions to allow to bypass exhaust gases in accordance with the trap condition and the exhaust gas temperature.

Exhaust gas purifying device for internal combustion engine

An exhaust gas purifying system including a trap filter for trapping particulates and the like which are discharged from a diesel engine. The trap filter in disposed in an exhaust passageway and carries an oxidation catalyst. A fuel injector valve is provided to inject fuel into the exhaust passageway upstream of the trap filter, so that the trap filter is supplied with fuel. The fuel is burned in the trap filter under the action of the oxidation catalyst thereby burning the particulates and the like so as to achieve a regeneration operation for the trap filter. The amount of fuel from the fuel injector valve is controlled to increase as an intake air amount increases and to decrease as an exhaust gas temperature increases.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Tetsuya Kamihara