Vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016380287-A1
Application number	US-201615184495-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 16, 2016
Priority date	Jun 26, 2015
Publication date	Dec 29, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An object is to provide a technique of reducing a potential failure to start a fuel cell system due to a temperature decrease in a vehicle with the fuel cell system mounted thereon. There is provided a vehicle that comprises a fuel cell system, a battery, a motor, and a determiner configured to determine that the fuel cell system has a frozen part when temperature measured by a temperature measurement unit is equal to or lower than a predetermined first temperature and at least one of conditions (1) to (3) is satisfied: (1) no purging process is performed after a change from an on state of the vehicle to an off state of the vehicle; (2) ambient temperature decreases to or below a predetermined second temperature in the off state of the vehicle and no purging process is performed; and (3) an inclination of the vehicle is equal to or greater than a predetermined inclination at a time of change from the off state of the vehicle to the on state of the vehicle.

First claim

1 . A vehicle, comprising:
a fuel cell system that has a fuel cell and a gas flow path arranged to supply a reactive gas to the fuel cell and is configured to allow the fuel cell to generate electric power by controlling supply of the reactive gas to the fuel cell; a battery that is configured to store electric power; a motor that is operated by receiving supply of electric power from at least one of the fuel cell and the battery; a temperature measurement unit that is configured to measure temperature in the fuel cell system; and a controller that includes a determiner configured to determine that the fuel cell system has a frozen part when the temperature measured by the temperature measurement unit is equal to or lower than a predetermined first temperature and at least one of conditions (1) to (3) is satisfied at a time of change from an off state of the vehicle in which power supply of the vehicle is off to an on state of the vehicle in which power supply of the vehicle is on, and a power controller configured to control an amount of electric power that is to be supplied to the motor:
(1) a purging process of supplying a purge gas to the gas flow path is not performed after the change from the on state of the vehicle to the off state of the vehicle;
(2) the temperature measured by the temperature measurement unit decreases to or below a predetermined second temperature in the off state of the vehicle and the purging process of supplying the purge gas to the gas flow path is not performed; and
(3) an inclination of the vehicle is equal to or greater than a predetermined inclination at the time of change from the off state of the vehicle to the on state of the vehicle, wherein
when the determiner determines that the fuel cell system has no frozen part, the power controller allows electric power to be supplied from at least one of the fuel cell and the battery to the motor.

2 . The vehicle according to claim 1 ,
wherein when the temperature measured by the temperature measurement unit is higher than a predetermined third temperature that is lower than the predetermined first temperature at the time of change from the off state of the vehicle to the on state of the vehicle, the determiner determines whether at least one of the conditions (1) to (3) is satisfied, and when the temperature measured by the temperature measurement unit is equal to or lower than the predetermined third temperature at the time of change from the off state of the vehicle to the on state of the vehicle, the determiner determines that the fuel cell system has a frozen part without determining whether any one of the conditions (1) to (3) is satisfied.

3 . The vehicle according to claim 1 ,
wherein when at least one of conditions (4) to (6) is satisfied after determination that the fuel cell system has a frozen part, the determiner determines that the frozen part of the fuel cell system is not unfreezable:
(4) electric power is supplied from the battery to an auxiliary machine provided to start the fuel cell system, and a suppliable electric power stored in the battery is reduced;
(5) a state that a current value of electric power generated by the fuel cell is equal to or lower than a predetermined first current value continues for a predetermined time period or a longer time period; and
(6) the current value of electric power generated by the fuel cell is equal to or lower than a predetermined second current value or when a voltage value of electric power generated by the fuel cell is equal to or lower than a predetermined first voltage value, wherein
when the determiner determines that the frozen part is not unfreezable, the power controller does not allow electric power to be supplied from the battery to the motor.

4 . The vehicle according to claim 3 ,
wherein when the determiner determines that the frozen part is unfreezable, the power controller performs an unfreezing process that unfreezes the frozen part of the fuel cell system by at least one of operation of the auxiliary machine provided to start the fuel cell system with electric power supplied from the battery and power generation of the fuel cell.

5 . The vehicle according to claim 4 ,
wherein when the power controller performs the unfreezing process and all of conditions (7) to (9) are satisfied, the determiner determines that the fuel cell system has no frozen part and is in an unfrozen state:
(7) a cumulative current value of electric power generated by the fuel cell is equal to or greater than a predetermined cumulative value;
(8) an exhaust amount in the fuel cell system is equal to or greater than a predetermined exhaust amount; and
(9) the current value of electric power generated by the fuel cell is equal to or higher than a predetermined third current value or the voltage value of electric power generated by the fuel cell is equal to or higher than a predetermined second voltage value, wherein
when the determiner determines that the fuel cell system is in the unfrozen state, the power controller allows electric power to be supplied from at least one of the fuel cell and the battery to the motor.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kaneko Tomohiko
• Okamoto Yohei
• Yamamoto Kazuo
• Ogawa Tomohiro
• Toida Masashi
• Nada Mitsuhiro
• Yamanaka Tomio

Classifications

• B60L11/1894

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• H01M2250/20

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

• H01M16/006

  of fuel cells with rechargeable batteries · CPC title

• H01M8/04067

  Heat exchange or temperature measuring elements, thermal insulation, e.g. heat pipes, heat pumps, fins · CPC title

• H01M8/04253 Primary

  Means for solving freezing problems · CPC title