System and method for fuel cell stack temperature control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10622650-B2
Application number	US-201715811290-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 13, 2017
Priority date	Nov 13, 2017
Publication date	Apr 14, 2020
Grant date	Apr 14, 2020

Abstract

Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a fuel cell system configured to modulate the flow of oxidant through the fuel cell system to maintain a desired temperature at the fuel cell stack. The fuel cell system is configured to control the flow of oxidant to maintain the desired temperature in the fuel cell stack based on temperature measurements of fluid outside of the fuel cell stack.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fuel cell system comprising:
a fuel cell stack comprising multiple fuel cells each comprising an anode and a cathode;
an oxidant flow control device in fluid communication with the cathodes and configured to provide an oxidant at an oxidant mass flow rate to the cathodes;
a fuel flow control device in fluid communication with the anodes and configured to provide a fuel at a fuel mass flow rate to the anodes;
a temperature sensor configured to sense a temperature of the oxidant upstream of the fuel cell stack;
an oxidant heater configured to heat the oxidant upstream of the fuel cell stack;
an auxiliary fuel flow control device in fluid communication with the oxidant heater and configured to provide an auxiliary fuel at an auxiliary fuel mass flow rate to the oxidant heater; and
a controller configured to:
control the oxidant flow control device to provide the oxidant to the cathodes;
control the fuel flow control device to provide the fuel to the anodes;
control the fuel cell stack to provide an electrical current to an electrical load based on a current set point;
control the oxidant heater to heat the oxidant upstream of the fuel cell stack based on the current set point;
control the oxidant mass flow rate based on the sensed temperature; and
determine the fuel mass flow rate based on the current set point.

2. The fuel cell system of claim 1 , wherein the oxidant heater is configured to heat the oxidant upstream of the fuel cell stack using the auxiliary fuel received from the auxiliary fuel flow control device.

3. The fuel cell system of claim 2 , wherein the controller is further configured to control the oxidant heater to heat the oxidant based on the current set point by determining the auxiliary fuel mass flow rate based on the current set point.

4. The fuel cell system of claim 3 , wherein a first current set point corresponds to a first fuel mass flow rate and a first auxiliary fuel mass flow rate and a second current set point that is greater than the first current set point corresponds to a second fuel mass flow rate that is greater than the first fuel mass flow rate and a second auxiliary fuel mass flow rate that is less than the first auxiliary fuel mass flow rate.

5. The fuel cell system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to determine a difference between the sensed temperature and a temperature set point.

6. The fuel cell system of claim 5 , wherein the controller is further configured to control the oxidant mass flow rate to reduce the difference between the sensed temperature and the temperature set point.

7. The fuel cell system of claim 6 , wherein a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) module of the controller is configured to determine the difference between the sensed temperature and the temperature set point.

Assignees

• Lg Fuel Cell Systems Inc

Inventors

• Bozzolo Michele
• Caratozzolo Francesco
• Silveira Erel David
• Traverso Alberto

Classifications

• H01M8/04014

  Heat exchange using gaseous fluids; Heat exchange by combustion of reactants · CPC title

• H01M8/04335

  of cathode reactants at the inlet or inside the fuel cell · CPC title

• H01M8/04701

  Temperature · CPC title

• H01M8/04738

  of auxiliary devices, e.g. reformer, compressor, burner · CPC title

• H01M2008/1293

  Fuel cells with solid oxide electrolytes · CPC title