Fuel cell system, fuel cell vehicle, and control method for fuel cell system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10056626-B2
Application number	US-201514939478-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 12, 2015
Priority date	Nov 14, 2014
Publication date	Aug 21, 2018
Grant date	Aug 21, 2018

Abstract

A fuel cell system mounted in a vehicle includes a fuel cell supplying electric power to a motor driving the vehicle, a pump supplying oxygen to the fuel cell, an accelerator position detection unit detecting an accelerator depression amount of the vehicle, and a control unit calculating electric power required to be generated by the fuel cell and electric power required for driving of the pump based on the accelerator depression amount and controlling the pump based on the electric power required for the driving, in which the control unit calculates the electric power required for the driving such that a rate of increase in the electric power required for the driving exceeds a rate of increase in the electric power required to be generated when the calculated electric power required to be generated increases.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fuel cell system mounted in a vehicle, the fuel cell system comprising:
a fuel cell supplying electric power to a motor driving the vehicle;
a pump supplying oxygen to the fuel cell;
an accelerator position detection unit detecting an accelerator depression amount of the vehicle;
a control unit calculating electric power required to be generated by the fuel cell and electric power required for driving of the pump based on the accelerator depression amount and controlling the pump based on the electric power required for the driving,
wherein the control unit calculates the electric power required for the driving such that a rate of increase in the electric power required for the driving exceeds a rate of increase in the electric power required to be generated when the calculated electric power required to be generated increases; and
a secondary battery supplying electric power to the motor,
wherein the control unit corrects a value of the electric power required for the driving by adding, to the electric power required for the driving calculated based on the accelerator depression amount, electric power used for charging of the secondary battery and calculated by use of an upper limit value of charging electric power set in accordance with temperature and an electric power storage amount of the secondary battery.

2. The fuel cell system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the control unit corrects a value of the electric power required for the driving by adding, to the electric power required for the driving calculated based on the accelerator depression amount, electric power used for compensating for lagging of a rotational speed of the motor behind the accelerator depression amount attributable to a vehicle weight of the vehicle and a rolling resistance of the vehicle and calculated by use of values set in advance as values respectively equivalent to the vehicle weight and the rolling resistance.

3. The fuel cell system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the control unit corrects a value of the electric power required to be generated such that, in a case where a difference between the electric power required to be generated and electric power actually generated by the fuel cell is equal to or greater than a first threshold and the electric power actually generated is equal to or less than a second threshold, the difference decreases with respect to the electric power required to be generated calculated based on the accelerator depression amount.

4. A vehicle comprising:
the fuel cell system according to claim 1 ; and
a motor driving the vehicle by using electric power supplied from the fuel cell system.

5. A control method for a fuel cell system mounted in a vehicle, the fuel cell system including a fuel cell supplying electric power to a motor driving the vehicle, a pump supplying oxygen to the fuel cell, and a secondary battery supplying electric power to the motor, the control method comprising:
detecting an accelerator depression amount of the vehicle;
calculating electric power required to be generated by the fuel cell and electric power required for driving of the pump based on the accelerator depression amount and controlling the pump based on the electric power required for the driving;
calculating the electric power required for the driving such that a rate of increase in the electric power required for the driving exceeds a rate of increase in the electric power required to be generated when the calculated electric power required to be generated increases; and
correcting a value of the electric power required for the driving by adding, to the electric power required for the driving calculated based on the accelerator depression amount, electric power used for charging of the secondary battery and calculated by use of an upper limit value of charging electric power set in accordance with temperature and an electric power storage amount of the secondary battery.

6. A fuel cell system mounted in a vehicle, the fuel cell system comprising:
a fuel cell supplying electric power to a motor driving the vehicle;
a pump supplying oxygen to the fuel cell;
an accelerator position detection unit detecting an accelerator depression amount of the vehicle; and
a control unit calculating electric power required to be generated by the fuel cell and electric power required for driving of the pump based on the accelerator depression amount and controlling the pump based on the electric power required for the driving,
wherein the control unit calculates the electric power required for the driving such that a rate of increase in the electric power required for the driving exceeds a rate of increase in the electric power required to be generated when the calculated electric power required to be generated increases, and
wherein the control unit corrects a value of the electric power required to be generated such that, in a case where a difference between the electric power required to be generated and electric power actually generated by the fuel cell is equal to or greater than a first threshold and the electric power actually generated is equal to or less than a second threshold, the difference decreases with respect to the electric power required to be generated calculated based on the accelerator depression amount.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kakeno Yuji
• Nada Mitsuhiro
• Umayahara Kenji
• Tano Yutaka

Classifications

• B60L2270/145

  Structure borne vibrations · CPC title

• B60L2240/46

  related to wheels · CPC title

• H01M8/04111

  using a compressor turbine assembly · CPC title

• H01M2250/20

  Fuel cells in motive systems, e.g. vehicle, ship, plane · CPC title

• B60L2250/28

  Accelerator pedal thresholds · CPC title