Fuel cell stack thermal management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10388971-B2
Application number	US-201615065333-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2016
Priority date	Mar 9, 2016
Publication date	Aug 20, 2019
Grant date	Aug 20, 2019

Abstract

Fuel-cell thermal management systems and control schemes therefore are disclosed. In one embodiment, the system may include a fuel-cell stack, a heat-exchanger, a thermal battery including a material having a melting temperature of 50-120° C., a first coolant loop including the fuel-cell stack and the thermal battery and excluding the heat-exchanger, and a second coolant loop including the fuel-cell stack, the thermal battery, and the heat-exchanger. The first and second coolant loops may be configured to heat and cool the fuel-cell stack, respectively. The system may include a controller or processor configured to direct coolant to transfer heat from the thermal battery to the fuel-cell stack based on a negative heat rejection status of the fuel-cell stack and to transfer heat from the fuel-cell stack to the thermal battery based on a positive heat rejection status of the fuel-cell stack when the thermal battery is below a target temperature.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fuel-cell thermal management system, comprising:
a fuel-cell stack;
a heat-exchanger;
a thermal battery including a phase change material having a melting temperature of 50- to 120° C;
a first coolant loop including the fuel-cell stack, the thermal battery and a first conduit, and excluding the heat-exchanger; and
a second coolant loop including the fuel-cell stack, the thermal battery, the heat-exchanger, and a second conduit;
the first conduit configured to flow a coolant from the thermal battery to the fuel-cell stack to transfer heat from the phase change material of the thermal battery to the fuel-cell stack, and
the first conduit configured to flow coolant from the fuel-cell stack to the thermal battery to transfer heat from the fuel-cell stack to the phase change material of the thermal battery.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a third coolant loop including the fuel-cell stack, the thermal battery, a heater core coupled to a climate control system, and a third conduit, the third conduit configured to transfer heat from the thermal battery to the heater core.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a first temperature sensor configured to measure an inlet temperature of the coolant entering the fuel-cell stack and a second temperature sensor configured to measure an outlet temperature of the coolant leaving the fuel-cell stack.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first and second coolant loops include the first conduit.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the phase change material has a latent heat of fusion of at least 100 kJ/kg.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a first pump included only in the second coolant loop and a second pump disposed upstream of an inlet of the fuel-cell stack.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first coolant loop includes an orifice restrictor downstream of the thermal battery and upstream of an inlet of the fuel-cell stack.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a three-way valve downstream of the thermal battery and configured to direct coolant to the first or second coolant loops.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the phase change material is an encapsulated phase change material.

10. A fuel-cell thermal management system, comprising:
a fuel-cell stack;
a heat-exchanger;
a thermal battery including a phase change material having a latent heat of fusion of over 100 kJ/kg;
a first coolant loop including the fuel-cell stack, the thermal battery and a first conduit;
a second coolant loop including the fuel-cell stack, the thermal battery, a heater core coupled to a climate control system, and a second conduit; and
a third coolant loop including the fuel-cell stack, the thermal battery, the heat-exchanger, and a third conduit,
the first conduit configured to flow a coolant from the thermal battery to the fuel-cell stack to transfer heat from the phase change material of the thermal battery to the fuel-cell stack, and
the first conduit configured to flow coolant from the fuel-cell stack to the thermal battery to transfer heat from the fuel-cell stack to the phase change material of the thermal battery.

11. The system of claim 10 , further comprising a first temperature sensor configured to measure an inlet temperature of the coolant entering the fuel-cell stack and a second temperature sensor configured to measure an outlet temperature of the coolant leaving the fuel-cell stack.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the material in the phase change thermal battery has a melting temperature of 50 to 120° C.

13. The system of claim 10 , further comprising a first pump included only in the third coolant loop and a second pump disposed upstream of an inlet of the fuel-cell stack.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the first, second and third coolant loops include the first conduit.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the third coolant loop is configured to cool the fuel-cell stack when the fuel-cell stack is above a target operating temperature and cool the thermal battery when it is above the target temperature.

16. A fuel-cell thermal management system, comprising:
a fuel-cell stack;
a heat-exchanger;
a thermal battery including a phase change material;
a first coolant loop including a fuel-cell stack, the thermal battery and a first conduit, and excluding the heat-exchanger; and
a second coolant loop including the fuel-cell stack, the thermal battery, the heat-exchanger, and a second conduit; and
a processor configured to direct a coolant flow from the thermal battery to the fuel-cell stack to transfer heat from the phase change material of the thermal battery to the fuel-cell stack based on a negative heat rejection status of the fuel-cell stack and to direct the coolant flow from the fuel-cell stack to the thermal battery to transfer heat from the fuel-cell stack to the phase change material of the thermal battery based on a positive heat rejection status of the fuel-cell stack when the thermal battery is below a target temperature.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the processor is further configured to direct the coolant flow to transfer heat from the thermal battery to the heat-exchanger when the thermal battery is above the target temperature.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the processor is further configured to direct the coolant flow to transfer heat from the fuel-cell stack to the heat-exchanger based on a positive heat rejection status of the fuel-cell stack.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the processor is further configured to direct the coolant flow to transfer heat from the fuel-cell stack to the thermal battery based on a positive heat rejection status of the fuel-cell stack when the thermal battery is above a target temperature and the heat-exchanger is at a maximum cooling capacity.

20. The system of claim 16 , wherein the processor is further configured to direct the coolant flow to transfer heat from the thermal battery to a heater core of a climate control system.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Shaikh Furqan Zafar
• Katragadda Sunil
• Cole W Cary
• Buckman Colby Jason
• Bonkoski Phillip

Classifications

• H01M8/04074

  Heat exchange unit structures specially adapted for fuel cell · CPC title

• H01M8/04052 Primary

  Storage of heat in the fuel cell system · CPC title

• H01M8/04358

  of the coolant · CPC title

• H01M8/04037 Primary

  Electrical heating · CPC title

• H01M8/04992

  characterised by the implementation of mathematical or computational algorithms, e.g. feedback control loops, fuzzy logic, neural networks or artificial intelligence · CPC title