Method for generating injection current for fuel cell stack and apparatus for performing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10147959-B2
Application number	US-201414564600-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2014
Priority date	Dec 20, 2013
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

An apparatus for generating injection current for a fuel cell stack includes a first converter configured to convert direct current of a voltage corresponding to a high voltage battery, into direct current of a predetermined voltage; a second converter configured to convert the converted direct current into alternating current; a filter configured to filter a signal of a predetermined frequency band from the converted alternating current; and a control unit configured to perform a feedback control to allow the filtered alternating current to be injected without being distorted when injecting the filtered alternating current into the fuel cell stack.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for generating an alternating current for a fuel cell stack in which the fuel cell stack supplies an electrical power required for driving a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
a first converter configured to convert direct current of a voltage corresponding to a high voltage battery, into direct current of a predetermined voltage, wherein the voltage of the high voltage battery is higher or lower than a voltage of the fuel cell stack, wherein the high voltage battery is configured to be boosted with tens of volts when boosting the direct current of the voltage corresponding to the high voltage battery;
a second converter configured to convert the direct current output from the first converter into alternating current;
a filter configured to filter a signal of a predetermined frequency band from the alternating current output from the second converter to generate a filtered alternating current; and
a control unit configured to perform feedback control to allow the filtered alternating current output from the filter to be injected into the fuel cell stack without being distorted,
wherein the high voltage battery retains a power-on state regardless of whether the vehicle is an on slate or an off state so that the high voltage battery provides the direct current of the voltage for generating the filtered alternating current before the fuel cell stack supplies the electrical power required for driving the vehicle.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a current sensor configured to detect the filtered alternating current and provide the detected alternating current to the control unit.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the control unit checks a difference between the detected alternating current received from the current sensor and the alternating current injected into the fuel cell stack by the control unit.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the control unit increases an amplitude of the alternating current injected into the fuel cell stack when a value of the detected alternating current is smaller than a value of the alternating current injected into the fuel cell stack, and
wherein the control unit decreases the amplitude of the alternating current injected into the fuel cell stack when the value of the detected alternating current is larger than the value of the alternating current injected into the fuel cell stack.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the high voltage battery is connected in parallel to the fuel cell stack.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5 , further comprising:
a bidirectional converter configured to convert the voltage of the high voltage battery and provide a converted voltage to the fuel cell stack, and convert a voltage of the fuel cell stack and provide a converted voltage to the high voltage battery.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first converter boosts the direct current of the voltage corresponding to the high voltage battery, to a voltage larger than the voltage of the fuel cell stack.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the second converter converts the direct current output from the first converter into the alternating current output from the second converter by controlling a pulse width of the direct current output from the first converter.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the filter generates the filtered alternating current in the form of a sine wave, by passing a region of the alternating current output from the second converter corresponding to lower frequencies and blocking a region of the alternating current output from the second converter corresponding to higher frequencies.

10. A method for generating an injection alternating current for a fuel cell stack in which the fuel cell stack supplies an electrical power required for driving a vehicle, performed in an apparatus for generating the injection alternating current for the fuel cell stack, the method comprising:
converting a direct current of a voltage corresponding to a high voltage battery, into a direct current of a predetermined voltage, wherein the voltage of the high voltage battery is higher or lower than a voltage of the fuel cell stack, wherein the high voltage battery is configured to be boosted with tens of volts when boosting the direct current of the voltage corresponding to the high voltage battery;
converting the direct current of the predetermined voltage into an alternating current;
filtering a signal of a predetermined frequency band from the converted alternating current to generate a filtered alternating current; and
performing feedback control to allow the filtered alternating current to be injected into the fuel cell stack without being distorted,
wherein the high voltage battery retains a power-on state regardless of whether the vehicle is an on state or an off state so that the high voltage battery provides the direct current of the voltage for generating the filtered alternating current before the fuel cell stack supplies the electrical power required for driving the vehicle.

11. The method according to claim 10 , further comprising:
receiving, by a control unit, the filtered alternating current detected by a current sensor.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the performing of the feedback control to allow the filtered alternating current to be injected into the fuel cell stack without being distorted comprises:
checking whether a difference occurs between the alternating current injected into the fuel cell stack by the control unit and the detected alternating current received by the control unit.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the checking of whether the difference occurs between the alternating current injected into the fuel ceil stack and the detected alternating current comprises:
increasing an amplitude of the alternating current injected into the fuel cell stack when a value of the detected alternating current is smaller than a value of the alternating current injected into the fuel cell stack; and
decreasing the amplitude of the alternating current injected into the fuel cell slack when the value of the detected alternating current is larger than the value of the alternating current injected into the fuel cell stack.

14. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the high voltage battery is connected in parallel to the fuel cell slack.

15. The method according to claim 14 , further comprising:
converting the voltage of the high voltage battery, and providing the converted voltage of the high voltage battery to the fuel cell stack; and
converting a voltage of the fuel cell stack, and providing the converted voltage of the fuel cell stack to the high voltage battery.

16. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the converting of the direct current of the voltage corresponding to the high voltage battery into the direct current of the predetermined voltage comprises:
boosting the direct current of the voltage corresponding to the high voltage battery, to a voltage larger than the voltage of the fuel cell stack.

17. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the converting of the direct current of the predetermined voltage into the alternating current comprises:
converting the direct current of the predetermined voltage into the alternating current by controlling a pulse width of the converted direct current.

18. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the filtering of the signal of the predetermined frequency hand from the converted a

Assignees

• Hyundai Autron Co Ltd

Inventors

• Park Hyun-Seok
• Ko Mun-Ki
• Cho Jin-Ho

Classifications

• H02J3/002 Primary

  Flicker reduction, e.g. compensation of flicker introduced by non-linear load · CPC title

• B60L58/30

  for monitoring or controlling fuel cells · CPC title

• B60L58/40

  for controlling a combination of batteries and fuel cells · CPC title

• H02J2101/30

  Fuel cells · CPC title

• B60L50/40

  using propulsion power supplied by capacitors · CPC title