Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100176220 | MOVING BODY - A moving body, such as a vehicle, having one or more fuel cells mounted thereon. The fuel cells, which power the moving body, generate electricity and release water as a by-product. Accordingly, the moving body includes a water discharge module that releases water produced by the fuel cells to the atmosphere using a water outlet. The water outlet may be located in a front section of the moving body. The moving body may further include a water tank that temporarily stores water before releasing the water to the atmosphere. | 07-15-2010 |
20110313605 | MOVING BODY - Water contained in exhaust gas discharged from a fuel cell stack is separated by a gas-liquid separator and is accumulated in a recovery tank. The procedure of the invention sets a release amount of water and selects one or multiple positions for water release, based on the driving conditions including the vehicle speed and the acceleration, the turning state, activation or non-activation of skid reduction control, the distance from any object detected by clearance sonars, a distance from a subsequent vehicle measured by an extremely high frequency radar, and the presence of raindrops detected by a raindrop detection sensor, and releases the water accumulated in the recovery tank from water outlets at the selected one or multiple positions among water outlets at multiple different locations. This arrangement ensures adequate release of the water produced by the fuel cell stack to the atmosphere. | 12-22-2011 |
20110313606 | MOVING BODY - Water contained in exhaust gas discharged from a fuel cell stack is separated by a gas-liquid separator and is accumulated in a recovery tank. The procedure of the invention sets a release amount of water and selects one or multiple positions for water release, based on the driving conditions including the vehicle speed and the acceleration, the turning state, activation or non-activation of skid reduction control, the distance from any object detected by clearance sonars, a distance from a subsequent vehicle measured by an extremely high frequency radar, and the presence of raindrops detected by a raindrop detection sensor, and releases the water accumulated in the recovery tank from water outlets at the selected one or multiple positions among water outlets at multiple different locations. This arrangement ensures adequate release of the water produced by the fuel cell stack to the atmosphere. | 12-22-2011 |
20120003557 | FUEL CELL SYSTEM AND START-UP CONTROL METHOD THEREFOR - An object is to suppress the degradation of durability due to a heat concentration while performing a rapid warm-up operation as necessary, when starting a fuel cell system at temperatures below freezing point. In order to achieve such an object, the present invention stores in a memory an operation termination condition of the last operation of the system, data such as the start-up temperature, or the remaining amount of product water at the time of the last scavenging; calculates the remaining amount of product water based on data read out from the memory at the time of starting the system to make judgments, from the remaining amount and the start-up temperature, on whether or not a rapid warm-up of the system is necessary and whether to start without circulating the cooling water when a rapid warm-up is necessary; and conducts, based on the judgment result provided by the judgment means, with or without circulating the cooling water, a low-efficiency power generation where a reactant gas to be supplied to the fuel cell is less than that in a normal power generation and an electronic power loss is larger than that in a normal power generation. The data includes, for example, an impedance, a temperature of the fuel cell and a scavenging air amount at the last termination of the operation of the fuel cell. | 01-05-2012 |
20120015269 | FUEL CELL SYSTEM - Provided is a fuel cell system that performs a warm-up operation by reducing a supply of oxidant gas to a fuel cell, the system having: a fuel cell; and a control unit that regulates amounts of oxidant gas and fuel gas supplied to the fuel cell and controls a power-generation state of the fuel cell. During the warm-up operation with a reduced supply of oxidant gas to the fuel cell, the control unit varies a voltage of the fuel cell for a short period of time to obtain current-voltage characteristics which indicate a relationship of an output voltage and an output current of the fuel cell, calculates an effective catalyst area of the fuel cell based on the obtained current-voltage characteristics, and determines whether the warm-up operation of the fuel cell can be stopped or not based on the calculated effective catalyst area. | 01-19-2012 |
20120015272 | FUEL CELL SYSTEM - A fuel cell system suppresses the deterioration of an electrolyte membrane of a fuel cell. The fuel cell system comprises: a temperature rise speed calculation unit for calculating a target temperature rise speed of the fuel cell using a temperature of the fuel cell and a water content of the fuel cell; and a drive control unit for controlling a drive of the cooling water pump using the temperature rise speed of the fuel cell and the target temperature rise speed calculated by the temperature rise speed calculation unit. The drive control unit controls the drive of the cooling water pump such that a circulation amount of the cooling water is decreased when the temperature rise speed of the fuel cell is below the target temperature rise speed and controls the drive of the cooling water pump such that the circulation amount of the cooling water is increased when the temperature rise speed of the fuel cell is equal to or greater than the target temperature rise speed. | 01-19-2012 |
20120021309 | FUEL CELL SYSTEM - A fuel cell system capable of inhibiting dew condensation in an area affected by freezing by providing an area for actively promoting dew condensation is provided. The fuel cell system includes a fuel cell and an off-gas passage for allowing an off-gas discharged from the fuel cell flow through, wherein a dew condensation promoting area for promoting dew condensation is placed around a freezing-affected area that will be adversely affected by freezing. | 01-26-2012 |
20120107706 | FUEL CELL SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD AT STARTING IN THE FUEL CELL SYSTEM - A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack and a fuel gas piping system which supplies a fuel gas to the fuel cell stack, and is capable of, at starting below a freezing point, selectively performing a rapid warm-up operation to generate electric power at an air stoichiometric ratio lower than that at starting at ordinary temperature, while revolving a circulating pump, and the fuel cell system further includes a clogging determination unit which determines whether or not clogging arises from freezing in a fuel gas passage of the fuel cell stack, or the fuel gas piping system, wherein when the clogging arises, the circulating pump is stopped in the rapid warm-up operation, and termination conditions of the rapid warm-up operation are changed in accordance with a clogging volume. | 05-03-2012 |
20120183875 | FUEL CELL SYSTEM - Provided is a fuel cell system that is capable of suppressing temperature change of the fuel cell under a low temperature environment after the operation has stopped, suppressing freezing due to condensation and ensuring a preferable start thereafter. The fuel cell system comprises: a fuel cell that generates electric power through an electrochemical reaction between air and a hydrogen gas; a gas supply section that supplies air and the hydrogen gas to an air supply path, a fuel supply path and a hydrogen circulation path which are connected to the fuel cell by a compressor and a hydrogen pump; a cooling section that cools the fuel cell by making a cooling path connected to the fuel cell to circulate by a pump the cooling water that is cooled by a radiator; and a control section that performs a scavenging process that scavenges inside the air supply path, the fuel supply path and the hydrogen circulation path by the gas supply section and a cooling process that cools the fuel cell by the cooling section, when it is determined that the fuel cell would be below zero after generation of electric power by the fuel cell has stopped. | 07-19-2012 |
20130149617 | MOVING BODY - A moving body, such as a vehicle, having one or more fuel cells mounted thereon. The fuel cells, which power the moving body, generate electricity and release water as a by-product. Accordingly, the moving body includes a water discharge module that releases water produced by the fuel cells to the atmosphere using a water outlet. The water outlet may be located in a front section of the moving body. The moving body may further include a water tank that temporarily stores water before releasing the water to the atmosphere. | 06-13-2013 |
20130295473 | MOVING BODY - A moving body, such as a vehicle, having one or more fuel cells mounted thereon. The fuel cells, which power the moving body, generate electricity and release water as a by-product. Accordingly, the moving body includes a water discharge module that releases water produced by the fuel cells to the atmosphere using a water outlet. The water outlet may be located in a front section of the moving body. The moving body may further include a water tank that temporarily stores water before releasing the water to the atmosphere. | 11-07-2013 |
20130295474 | MOVING BODY - A moving body, such as a vehicle, having one or more fuel cells mounted thereon. The fuel cells, which power the moving body, generate electricity and release water as a by-product. Accordingly, the moving body includes a water discharge module that releases water produced by the fuel cells to the atmosphere using a water outlet. The water outlet may be located in a front section of the moving body. The moving body may further include a water tank that temporarily stores water before releasing the water to the atmosphere. | 11-07-2013 |
20150017561 | FUEL CELL SYSTEM - A fuel cell system suppresses the deterioration of an electrolyte membrane of a fuel cell. The fuel cell system comprises: a temperature rise speed calculation unit for calculating a target temperature rise speed of the fuel cell using a temperature of the fuel cell and a water content of the fuel cell; and a drive control unit for controlling a drive of the cooling water pump using the temperature rise speed of the fuel cell and the target temperature rise speed calculated by the temperature rise speed calculation unit. The drive control unit controls the drive of the cooling water pump such that a circulation amount of the cooling water is decreased when the temperature rise speed of the fuel cell is below the target temperature rise speed and controls the drive of the cooling water pump such that the circulation amount of the cooling water is increased when the temperature rise speed of the fuel cell is equal to or greater than the target temperature rise speed. | 01-15-2015 |