Fuel cell system and method of controlling fuel cell system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11721818-B2
Application number	US-202017088108-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 3, 2020
Priority date	Jan 16, 2020
Publication date	Aug 8, 2023
Grant date	Aug 8, 2023

Abstract

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell in which cells are stacked, a voltage sensor that detects a voltage in unit of one or more of the cells, a control unit that determines an operating point of the fuel cell and causes the fuel cell to operate. The control unit causes the fuel cell to operate at a low efficiency operating point having a lower efficiency than an efficiency of a reference operating point in a warm-up operation. In the warm-up operation, the control unit calculates a total number of the cells in which the voltage detected by the voltage sensor is equal to or less than a predetermined first reference voltage and calculates an exhaust hydrogen concentration based on the total number or the cells.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fuel cell system comprising:
a fuel cell in which cells are stacked;
a voltage sensor configured to detect a voltage in unit of one or more of the cells;
a control unit configured to calculate, among the stacked cells, the number of specific cells in which the voltage detected by the voltage sensor is equal to or less than a predetermined first reference voltage, and cause the fuel cell to operate based on the calculated number of the specific cells; and
a storage device storing a reference map in which a required heat generation amount is associated with the number of the specific cells such that an exhaust hydrogen concentration is equal to or less than a reference concentration, and the required heat generation amount decreases as the number of the specific cells increases, wherein
the control unit is configured to:
calculate the number of the specific cells based on the detected voltage;
acquire the required heat generation amount associated with the calculated number of the specific cells based on the reference map; and
cause the fuel cell to operate with the acquired required heat generation amount as a target value.

2. A method of controlling a fuel cell system including a fuel cell in which cells are stacked and a voltage sensor that detects a voltage in unit of one or more of the cells, the method comprising:
calculating, among the stacked cells, the number of specific cells in which the voltage detected by the voltage sensor is equal to or less than a predetermined first reference voltage; and
acquiring a required heat generation amount associated with the calculated number of the specific cells based on a reference map in which the acquired heat generation amount is associated with the number of the specific cells and the required heat generation amount decreases as the number of the specific cells increases, and causing the fuel cell to operate with the acquired required heat generation amount as a target value.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Namba Ryouichi
• Sanada Toshiyuki
• Tsunekawa Hiroyuki
• Ikogi Yoshihiro
• Ito Masahiro

Classifications

• H01M8/04462 Primary

  of anode exhausts · CPC title

• H01M8/0432

  Temperature; Ambient temperature · CPC title

• H01M8/04225 Primary

  during start-up · CPC title

• H01M8/04253

  Means for solving freezing problems · CPC title

• H01M8/04552

  of the individual fuel cell · CPC title