Fuel Cell System Having a Fuel Cell Stack Arranged in a Housing, and a Measure for Ventilating the Housing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016355102-A1
Application number	US-201615244133-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 23, 2016
Priority date	Feb 24, 2014
Publication date	Dec 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A fuel cell system, in particular for a motor vehicle, has a fuel cell stack arranged in a housing and a measure for ventilating this housing by coupling the ventilation stream to another gas stream. The ventilation stream is fed to an air stream which is conducted through a radiator of the fuel cell system. The radiator is an ambient air heat exchanger. If the ventilation stream is fed in upstream of the radiator, a venting opening in the housing can be placed in such a way that the ventilation stream is entrained to the radiator by the inflow air stream. Alternatively, the ventilation stream can be fed to an exhaust gas stream of the fuel cell stack and the latter can be fed to the outflow stream of the radiator. A sensor for determining the hydrogen content in a gas stream downstream of the point where the ventilation stream is fed may be provided. An electronic monitoring device which, on the basis of this sensor signal, draws a conclusion about hydrogen which is possibly located in a free state within the housing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A fuel cell system, comprising:
a housing; a fuel cell stack arranged in the housing, wherein a ventilation flow that ventilates the housing is supplied to an air flow conducted through an ambient-air heat exchanging radiator of the fuel cell system.

2 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein the fuel cell system is for a motor vehicle.

3 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein the ventilation flow is supplied upstream of the radiator.

4 . The fuel cell system according to claim 3 , wherein the housing comprises a ventilation opening, the ventilation opening being positioned such that the ventilation flow is entrained by an inlet-airflow to the radiator.

5 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the ventilation flow is supplied to an exhaust-gas flow of the fuel cell stack, and the exhaust-gas flow is supplied to an exit-air flow of the radiator.

6 . The fuel cell system according to claim 5 , wherein the exhaust-gas flow is supplied to the exit-airflow of the radiator in a mixing region.

7 . The fuel cell system according to claim 5 , wherein a cathode exhaust-gas flow and an anode exhaust-gas flow of the fuel cell stack are merged in a mixer.

8 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a sensor configured to determined hydrogen content in a gas flow downstream of the supply of the ventilation flow; and an electronic monitoring device which, based on a signal of the sensor, monitors the hydrogen content in the mixed gas flow.

9 . The fuel cell system according to claim 8 , wherein the electronic monitoring device is configured to draw a conclusion regarding hydrogen possibly freely situated within the housing of the fuel cell system.

Assignees

• Bayerische Motoren Werke Ag

Inventors

• Friedrich Stephan
• Scherrer Martin
• Bauer Michael
• Schmid Johannes
• Frisch Norbert

Classifications

• B60L11/1883 Primary

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• H01M8/04462

  of anode exhausts · CPC title

• H01M2250/20

  Fuel cells in motive systems, e.g. vehicle, ship, plane · CPC title

• H01M8/2475

  Enclosures, casings or containers of fuel cell stacks · CPC title

• H01M8/0662

  Treatment of gaseous reactants or gaseous residues, e.g. cleaning · CPC title