Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Sumitomo Electric Industries, Limited

Yasushi Araki

Masayuki Ito

Shinya Hirota

Masaaki Matsusue

Kiyoshi Kobashi

Sho Usami

Toshiaki Tanaka

Shinichi Takeshima

Yoshimasa Watanabe

Satoshi Iguchi

Satoshi Aoyama

Kazunori Shibata

Hitoshi Hamada

Masayuki Itou

Fumitada Murakami

Tomohiro Oda

Yoshimitu Henda

Youichi Nagai

Kiyoshi Nakanishi

Hiroaki Takeuchi

Tomohiko Kaneko

Masaaki Yamaoka

Tomohiro Ogawa

Shigeaki Murata

Iwao Maeda

Tatsuji Mizuno

Shuya Kawahara

Kiyomi Nagamiya

Hiromi Tanaka

Masashi Yamashita

Kimihide Horio

Keisuke Fujita

Masayoshi Taki

Takashi Kajiwara

Shinji Jomori

Yoshimitsu Henda

Seiji Sano

Ryoichi Nanba

Yuji Yamanishi

Syunsuke Ban

Kohsei Yoshida

An energy consumption predicting device includes: an acquisition unit acquiring a parameter correlated with at least one of a vehicle speed when a vehicle traveled on a route from a first point to a second point on which a vehicle traveling using only a power source consuming an energy source supplied from outside of the vehicle and stored therein is able to travel, a different vehicle speed when a different vehicle traveled on the route, an output of the power source when the vehicle traveled on the route, and an output of a different power source when the different vehicle traveling using only the same type of different power source as the power source traveled on the route; and a calculation unit calculating a predicted consumption of the energy source which is predicted when the vehicle travels on the route from the first point to the second point.

Energy consumption predicting device and energy consumption predicting method

A fuel cell system includes a first fuel cell having first unit cells stacked together, a second fuel cell having second unit cells stacked together, a first voltage detector, a second voltage detector, and a controller. The first voltage detector detects voltage of the first unit cells for every 'N' unit cells on average, and the second voltage detector detects voltage of the whole second fuel cell, or detects voltage of the second unit cells for every 'M' unit cells on average. The controller determines whether any of the first unit cells is in a fuel deficiency state, by referring to a detection result of the first voltage detector, and performs a cancellation process to cancel the fuel deficiency state, on the first fuel cell that is in a power generating state, while stopping power generation of the second fuel cell, when an affirmative decision is obtained.

Fuel cell system

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell in which at least one of an anode electrode and a cathode electrode with an electrolyte membrane interposed therebetween from both sides contains a radical inhibitor; a purging device which performs a purging process of purging water in the fuel cell by supplying a purging gas into the fuel cell after a power generation stop request of the fuel cell is issued; and a purging control unit which sets a purging condition of the purging process so as to increase a purging power in stages or continuously as a correlation value correlated with an accumulated amount of the radical inhibitor accumulated in the electrolyte membrane changes with an increase in the accumulated amount.

An output performance diagnosis apparatus for a fuel cell acquires, in a case where determination is made that a representative value of impedance of the fuel cell acquired during a trip of a vehicle traveling with a fuel cell as a power source is equal to or less than an impedance threshold, during the trip in which the impedance is acquired, a current-voltage characteristic of the fuel cell based on a change of an output voltage of the fuel cell after a period in which the output voltage of the fuel cell is maintained in a range equal to or higher than a lower limit voltage and equal to or lower than a voltage threshold higher than the lower limit voltage over a predetermined period or more, and calculates maximum output electric power of the fuel cell based on the acquired current-voltage characteristic.

Output performance diagnosis apparatus for fuel cell, output performance diagnosis system for fuel cell, output performance diagnosis method for fuel cell, and non-transitory computer readable medium storing output performance diagnosis program for fuel cell

A fuel cell system is equipped with a fuel cell unit that is composed of a plurality of fuel cells including a first fuel cell and a second fuel cell, a first supply device and a second supply device that supply reactive gas to the first fuel cell and the second fuel cell respectively, and a control device that controls running of the first fuel cell and the second fuel cell and operation of the first supply device and the second supply device. The control device suspends electric power generation by the first fuel cell and drives the first supply device to hold an opening circuit voltage of the first fuel cell within a target range, and suspends electric power generation by the second fuel cell and stops driving the second supply device when an output P required of the fuel cell unit is equal to 0.

Fuel cell system and vehicle

A fuel cell system includes a first fuel cell, second fuel cell, first voltage detector, second voltage detector, and controller. The first voltage detector detects voltage of first unit cells of the first fuel cell for every 'N' unit cells on average, and the second voltage detector detects voltage of the second fuel cell as a whole, or detects voltage of second unit cells of the second fuel cell for every 'M' unit cells on average, where &#x201c;M&#x201d; is larger than &#x201c;N&#x201d;. The controller determines whether any of the second unit cells is in a fuel deficiency state, based on the detection result of the first voltage detector, when a predetermined condition under which states of the first fuel cell and the second fuel cell are regarded as being close to each other is satisfied.

A fuel cell system includes: a first tank and a second tank each accumulating a fuel gas to be supplied to a fuel cell; a heating device disposed in a passage connecting the first tank and the second tank; and a controller configured to bring the heating device into operation so that the fuel gas flowing from one of the first tank and the second tank to the other of the first tank and the second tank through the heating device is heated when a condition for a temperature of the fuel gas in the first tank or a condition for a temperature of the fuel gas in the second tank is satisfied.

A device equipped with a tank includes: a tank storing gas; a receptacle to be coupled to a gas supply nozzle; a filling passage communicating the tank with the receptacle; and a determination unit configured to determine whether there is a leak in the filling passage based on an amount of decrease in pressure in the filling passage per unit time, after supplying of the gas cooled to below freezing to the tank through the receptacle and the filling passage is finished, when a temperature of the receptacle is a predetermined temperature or greater and a pressure in the filling passage in a state where all valves opening and closing the filling passage are closed is greater than a first pressure, wherein the receptacle incorporates a check valve inhibiting backflow of the gas from the filling passage.

Device equipped with tank

An output prediction device for a fuel cell includes: a first acquisition circuitry configured to acquire a first required output of the fuel cell, the first required output being calculated based on a predicted vehicle speed or a predicted acceleration of a vehicle on a scheduled traveling route for the vehicle, the vehicle traveling by using the fuel cell as a dynamic power source; a second acquisition circuitry configured to acquire a second required output of the fuel cell, the second required output being required by an air-conditioning device of the vehicle; and a calculation circuitry configured to calculate a parameter correlated with a predicted output value of the fuel cell, based on the first required output and the second required output, the predicted output value being predicted as an output on the scheduled traveling route.

Output prediction device for fuel cell, output prediction method for fuel cell and fuel cell system

An output performance recovering device for a fuel cell includes: a diagnosis unit configured to determine whether it is necessary to recover a catalyst of a fuel cell mounted as a power source for traveling in a vehicle from short-term performance deterioration; a recovery unit configured to control a voltage of the fuel cell and to perform recovery processing for recovering the catalyst from the short-term performance deterioration; a calculation unit configured to calculate a parameter correlated with a predicted output value of the fuel cell which has been predicted to be output on a scheduled traveling route of the vehicle based on a gradient of the scheduled traveling route of the vehicle and a predicted vehicle speed of the vehicle on the scheduled traveling route; and a determination unit configured to determine whether the parameter indicates the predicted output value is greater than a first threshold value.

Output performance recovering device for fuel cell and output performance recovering method for fuel cell

A fuel cell includes: a membrane electrode assembly; cathode and anode-side water-repellent layers; a cathode-side separator that includes a cathode gas passage and an air exhaust manifold communicated to the cathode gas passage. The cathode gas passage includes a water exhaust inhibiting portion and a water storage portion. The water exhaust inhibiting portion is provided on a lowermost passage positioned on a lowermost side in a gravity direction. The water storage portion is provided upstream of the water exhaust inhibiting portion such that liquid water is stored in the water storage portion by the water exhaust inhibiting portion. A liquid water connection portion is provided in the water-repellent layer so as to pass through the water-repellent layer such that liquid water flows between the catalyst layer and the water storage portion.

Fuel cell and fuel cell system

A fuel cell system having a fuel cell operated under non-humidified conditions that includes a polymer electrolyte membrane sandwiched between an anode and a cathode, a fuel gas channel facing the anode to supply it with fuel gas, an oxidant gas channel facing the cathode to supply it with oxidant gas, and a flow direction of the fuel gas and the oxidant gas are opposite. The fuel cell system may control a water vapor amount at an outlet of the fuel gas channel based on a value that is set based on a relationship between a voltage of the fuel cell and the water vapor amount. The fuel cell system may control an average flow rate of the fuel gas in the fuel gas channel based on a value that is set based on a relationship between a voltage of the fuel cell and the average flow rate.

Fuel cell system including a fuel cell and a controller for controlling water vapor amount or average flow rate of a fuel gas

A fuel cell includes a membrane electrode assembly; a frame configured to support the membrane electrode assembly from its outer edge; a first separator plate and a second separator plate configured to sandwich the membrane electrode assembly and the frame therebetween; and an elastomer. The first separator plate includes an elastically deformable protruding portion projecting toward an opposite side to the frame. The frame has a recessed cavity portion facing the protruding portion of the first separator plate. The elastomer is placed in at least part of the cavity portion.

Fuel cell

A fuel cell systemincludes a fuel cell, a cathode gas supply system, a supply valve, an exhaust valveand a controller. The fuel cellhas a supply manifold M, an exhaust manifold M, and a power generation area GA connected with these manifolds Mand M. The cathode gas supply systemcauses a gas to be flowed into the supply manifold M. The supply valveis operable to seal the supply manifold M, whereas the exhaust valveis operable to seal the exhaust manifold M. The controllercloses the supply valveand the exhaust valveafter operation stop of the fuel cellto seal the fuel cellunder a specified pressure and then waits for a predefined time. The controllersubsequently opens the supply valveto move water remaining in the power generation area GA on the flow of the gas toward outside of the power generation area GA.

Fuel cell system and control method thereof

A fuel cell system () is provided with a voltage detection device () that detects a cell voltage of a cell group containing one or more cells (), a current density detection device () that detects a generated current density of the cell group, and a determination portion () that determines the presence or absence of an inflection point of a change in the cell voltage relative to the generated current density based on the detection results of the voltage detection device and the current density detection device.

Growing community of inventors

Gotemba, Japan

Yasushi Araki