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

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10003093-B2
Application number	US-201113574709-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 28, 2011
Priority date	Jan 28, 2011
Publication date	Jun 19, 2018
Grant date	Jun 19, 2018

Abstract

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.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A fuel cell system configured to be operated under a non-humidified condition, comprising:
a fuel cell comprising:
a polymer electrolyte membrane sandwiched between an anode electrode and a cathode electrode,
a fuel gas channel disposed so as to face the anode electrode in order to supply the anode electrode with fuel gas containing at least a fuel component, and
an oxidant gas channel disposed so as to face the cathode electrode in order to supply the cathode electrode with oxidant gas containing at least an oxidant component,
wherein a flow direction of the fuel gas in the fuel gas channel and a flow direction of the oxidant gas in the oxidant gas channel are opposite; and
a controller including control logic configured to cause the controller to (i) have a target value of a water vapor amount at an outlet of the fuel gas channel that is preliminarily set based only on a relationship between a voltage of the fuel cell and the water vapor amount at the outlet of the fuel gas channel, and (ii) control the water vapor amount at the outlet of the fuel gas channel based on the target value of the water vapor amount,
wherein a peak voltage can be obtained when the water vapor amount discharged from the outlet of the fuel gas channel is from 0.02 mol/min to 0.067 mol/min at a fuel cell temperature of 70° C. or more, and
the fuel cell system does not include a meter configured to measure the water vapor amount at the outlet of the fuel gas channel.

2. The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to control at least one of a temperature of the fuel cell and a flow rate and pressure of the fuel gas in the fuel cell, based on the target value of the water vapor amount.

3. The fuel cell system according to claim 2 , further comprising a fuel gas supply path which supplies the fuel component gas to the fuel gas channel from a fuel supply means, a fuel gas circulating path which recirculates fuel gas discharged from the fuel cell to the fuel gas supply path, and a recirculation pump which is installed in the fuel gas circulating path and recirculates the discharged fuel gas to the fuel gas supply path,
wherein the controller is further configured to control the flow rate of the fuel gas in the fuel cell by controlling the flow rate of the discharged fuel gas recirculated by the recirculation pump.

4. The fuel cell system according to claim 2 , wherein the controller is further configured to control the pressure of the fuel gas at the inlet of the fuel gas channel and/or the pressure of the fuel gas at the outlet of the fuel gas channel, based on the target value of the water vapor amount.

5. The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to control the flow rate and/or pressure of the fuel gas in the fuel cell, based on the target value of the water vapor amount.

6. The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to control at least one of the temperature of the fuel cell and the flow rate and pressure of the fuel gas in the fuel cell, based on a map obtained based on a correlation between the target value of the water vapor amount and at least one of the fuel gas flow rate, fuel gas pressure and fuel cell temperature.

7. The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to control the water vapor amount during operation of the fuel cell at a temperature of 80° C. or more.

Assignees

• Nanba Ryoichi
• Araki Yasushi
• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Nanba Ryoichi
• Araki Yasushi

Classifications

• H01M8/04873

  of the individual fuel cell · CPC title

• H01M8/04089

  of gaseous reactants · CPC title

• H01M8/04828

  Humidity; Water content · CPC title

• H01M8/04291 Primary

  Arrangements for managing water in solid electrolyte fuel cell systems (H01M8/04119 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01M8/04514

  of anode exhausts · CPC title