Apparatus and method for high efficiency operation of fuel cell systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016020473-A1
Application number	US-201514867652-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 28, 2015
Priority date	Dec 2, 2008
Publication date	Jan 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A drive circuit comprising a DC bus configured to supply power to a load, a first fuel cell coupled to the DC bus and configured to provide a first power output to the DC bus, and a second fuel cell coupled to the DC bus and configured to provide a second power output to the DC bus supplemental to the first fuel cell. The drive circuit further includes an energy storage device coupled to the DC bus and configured to receive energy from the DC bus when a combined output of the first and second fuel cells is greater than a power demand from a load, and provide energy to the DC bus when the combined output of the first and second fuel cells is less than the power demand from the load.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A drive circuit comprising:
a DC bus; a voltage converter assembly coupled to the DC bus; a fuel cell coupled to the voltage converter assembly; and a controller programmed to:
operate the fuel cell to deliver a first power output to the voltage converter assembly during a first mode of operation and deliver a second power output to the voltage converter assembly during a second mode of operation, the second power output being different from the first power output.

2 . The drive circuit of claim 1 further comprising an energy storage device coupled to the DC bus via the voltage converter assembly; and
wherein the controller is further programmed to control the energy storage device to deliver a supplemental output power to the voltage converter assembly.

3 . The drive circuit of claim 2 wherein the energy storage device comprises one of a battery, an ultracapacitor, and a flywheel.

4 . The drive circuit of claim 1 wherein the fuel cell comprise regenerative fuel cells.

5 . The drive circuit of claim 1 wherein the voltage converter assembly comprises at least one bi-directional buck/boost converters.

6 . A method of operating a fuel cell propulsion system comprising:
operating a controller programmed to cause a fuel cell to deliver a first output to a DC-to-DC converter assembly during a first mode of operation; operating a controller programmed to cause the first fuel cell to deliver the second output to the DC-to-DC converter assembly during a second mode of operation; and operating a controller programmed to cause the DC-to-DC converter assembly to boost the first and second outputs and supply the boosted outputs to a DC link.

7 . The method of claim 6 further comprising operating a controller programmed to cause the DC-to-DC converter assembly to permit recharging of the fuel cell during a third mode of operation.

8 . The method of claim 6 further comprising operating a controller programmed to cause an energy storage device to deliver a third output to the DC-to-DC converter assembly during the first mode of operation.

9 . A fuel cell propulsion system comprising:
a vehicle traction motor; a DC bus coupled to the vehicle traction motor via an rove: a DC-to-DC converter assembly coupled to the DC bus; a fuel cell arrangement coupled to the DC bus via the DC-to-DC converter assembly; and a controller programmed to:
operate the fuel cell arrangement to deliver a first power output to the DC-to-DC converter assembly during a high-power-demand operating mode; and
operate the fuel cell arrangement to deliver a second power output to the DC-to-DC converter assembly during a low-power-demand operating mode.

10 . The fuel cell propulsion system of claim 9 further comprising an energy storage unit coupled to the DC-to-DC converter assembly; and
wherein the controller is further programmed to operate the energy storage unit to supply a power output equal to a difference between a requested operating power of the vehicle traction motor and a power output of fuel cells arrangement.

11 . The fuel cell propulsion system of claim 9 wherein the fuel cell arrangement comprises a regenerative fuel cell.

Assignees

• Gen Electric

Inventors

• King Robert Dean
• Richter Timothy Gerard

Classifications

• H02J2101/30

  Fuel cells · CPC title

• B60L58/40

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

• H02J7/34

  Parallel operation in networks using both storage and other DC sources, e.g. providing buffering (H02J7/14 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01M8/04947

  of auxiliary devices, e.g. batteries, capacitors · CPC title

• Y10T29/49002

  Electrical device making · CPC title