Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Yusai Yoshimura

Nobuki Koiwa

Koichiro Miyata

Hideo Numata

Osamu Ogami

Osamu Ohgami

Koichi Takaku

Kuniaki Ojima

Koichi Kato

Jumpei Ogawa

Akiji Ando

Takashi Yamamoto

Kazuhide Inoue

Masakazu Hamachi

Joji Nakashima

Jin Nishio

Shinjiro Morita

Tomonari Hattori

When leakage of fuel gas is detected by detection signals or disruption of the detection signals is detected, a FCECU limits a supply amount of the fuel gas from a fuel gas supply device, and shuts off the supply of the fuel gas by the fuel gas supply device when determining, after limiting the supply amount of the fuel gas, that the leakage of the fuel gas or the disruption of the detection signals has occurred.

Fuel cell system

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack, a circulation circuit, a gas liquid separator section, a purge channel, a purge valve and an ECU. In a method of operating the fuel cell system at low temperature, after start-up of the fuel cell system, the ECU performs a freezing determination processing step of determining freezing or non-freezing of the gas liquid separator, and in the case where freezing of the gas liquid separator is determined in the freezing determination step, the ECU performs a freezing confirmation processing step of immediately opening the purge valve for predetermined time.

Fuel cell system and method of operating the fuel cell system at low temperature

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack, a fuel gas supply channel, a fuel gas circulation channel, a circulating pump that is driven by a pump motor having no sensor, and an ECU for controlling the rotation of the pump motor. A method for operating the fuel cell system rotates the pump motor when starting, and stops the supply of electric power to the pump motor after the rotational speed of the pump motor has reached a given value, and determines, in an inertial period, whether or not the rotational speed of the pump motor has become equal to or lower than a predetermined value within a given time period.

Method of operating fuel cell system

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack, a fuel gas supply channel, a circulation passage, a purge valve, and a temperature sensor. A method of operating the fuel cell system performs a judging step of determining whether or not the temperature detected by the temperature sensor is at or below a given temperature. Then, if the temperature is at or below the given temperature, the method performs a purge valve scavenging process step of intermittently opening and closing the purge valve multiple times, while supplying the fuel gas through the fuel gas supply channel.

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack, a gas liquid separator, a water level sensor, a drain valve, and a control unit. When a failure detection processing method is performed, a control unit makes a determination of main conditions where the water level sensor determines that water is present, a power generation current value of the fuel cell stack is not more than a predetermined current threshold value, a drain valve for discharging water in the gas liquid separator is open. Then, the control unit counts elapsed time when the main conditions are satisfied, and in the case where the main conditions are kept satisfied for the elapsed time which is larger than a time threshold value, the control unit determines that the water level sensor has a failure.

Failure detection processing method

A method for controlling a fuel cell system including a fuel cell, includes measuring an impedance of the fuel cell that includes a solid polymer electrolyte membrane to generate electric power via an electrochemical reaction between a fuel gas and an oxidant gas. An output electric current output from the fuel cell is increased to a threshold electric current value when the impedance is equal to or higher than a threshold impedance value and a target electric current value is larger than the threshold electric current value. The output electric current is maintained at the threshold electric current value. The output electric current is increased from the threshold electric current value to the target electric current value.

Method for controlling fuel cell system

A method for controlling a fuel cell system including a fuel cell which includes an anode electrode and a cathode electrode sandwiching a solid polymer electrolyte membrane therebetween, includes driving a pump to supply an oxidant gas to the cathode electrode. The pump has a minimum supply amount of the oxidant gas. A fuel gas is supplied to the anode electrode to generate electric power via an electrochemical reaction between the fuel gas and the oxidant gas. It is determined whether a target amount of the oxidant gas to be supplied to the cathode electrode is lower than the minimum supply amount. An opening degree of a pressure adjusting valve is adjusted to adjust an amount of the oxidant gas supplied to the cathode electrode to be the target amount when the target amount is determined to be lower than the minimum supply amount.

A fuel cell system that can supply fuel gas appropriately is provided. The fuel cell system includes an injectorA and an injectorB which inject fuel gas, and an ECU. The ECUadjusts the flow rate of the fuel gas that is injected from the injectorA by adjusting the valve opening time period and the valve closing time period of the injectorA, which are repeated alternately, and make at least a part of the valve opening time period of the injectorB overlap with the valve closing time period of the injectorA when opening the valve of the injectorB.

Provided is a fuel-cell system having a control device which controls driving of a first fuel supply device and a second fuel supply device. The control device includes, a driving-interval setting unit which sets first driving intervals for the first fuel supply device and second driving intervals for the second fuel supply device, a first fuel-supply-device control unit which sets valve-open durations of the first fuel supply device according to the first driving intervals, and a second fuel-supply-device control unit which sets valve-open durations of the second fuel supply device according to the second driving intervals. The driving-interval setting unit sets the second driving intervals to be shorter than the first driving intervals.

Growing community of inventors

Wako, Japan

Yusai Yoshimura