The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 27, 2009
Filed:
Mar. 15, 2005
Kenji Umayahara, Susono, JP;
Shimpei Miura, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA (US);
Minobu Mizuno, Toyota, JP;
Yasunobu Jufuku, Mishima, JP;
Masahiko Hasegawa, Okazaki, JP;
Kenji Umayahara, Susono, JP;
Shimpei Miura, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA (US);
Minobu Mizuno, Toyota, JP;
Yasunobu Jufuku, Mishima, JP;
Masahiko Hasegawa, Okazaki, JP;
Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha, Toyota, JP;
Abstract
A gas/liquid separation device is connected to a discharge valve which can discharge fuel gas to the outside of a fuel cell system along with water accumulated in the gas/liquid separation device. A change in pressure at a portion upstream of the discharge valve, which occurs due to an opening operation of the discharge valve, is detected or estimated, and an integral value is obtained by integrating the amount of change in the pressure with respect to time from when the discharge valve is opened or a parameter value corresponding to the integral value is obtained. The integral value represents an amount of fuel gas discharged due to the opening operation of the discharge valve. It is therefore possible to reliably discharge a desired amount of fuel gas by deciding a closing time at which the discharge valve is closed based on the integral value or the parameter value.