Fuel cell system as well as a vehicle having such a fuel cell system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017040627-A1
Application number	US-201615228233-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 4, 2016
Priority date	Aug 5, 2015
Publication date	Feb 9, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A fuel cell system ( 100 ) having a fuel cell stack ( 10 ) and a fuel cell cooling system ( 40 ) to cool the fuel cell stack ( 10 ), including a coolant path ( 4 ) into which the fuel cell stack ( 10 ) is integrated so as to transfer heat and in which at least one cooler ( 43 ) or heat exchanger is arranged. It is provided that the at least one cooler ( 43 ) or heat exchanger that does not have shock-hazard protection is interconnected so as to establish equipotential bonding ( 47 ), whereby at least one control element is arranged in the connection of the at least one cooler ( 43 ) or heat exchanger to equipotential bonding ( 47 ). Moreover, a vehicle having such a fuel cell system ( 100 ) is disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A fuel cell system comprising:
a fuel cell stack; and a fuel cell cooling system to cool the fuel cell stack, the fuel cell cooling system including a coolant path, the fuel cell stack integrated into the coolant path so as to transfer heat, at least one cooler or heat exchanger being arranged in the coolant path, the at least one cooler being connected via a connection so as to establish equipotential bonding, at least one control element being arranged in the connection of the at least one cooler or heat exchanger to the equipotential bonding.

2 . The fuel cell system as recited in claim 1 wherein the at least one control element is an electrical switch.

3 . The fuel cell system as recited in claim 1 wherein the electrical switch is a relay.

4 . The fuel cell system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a control unit configured to control the at least one control element.

5 . The fuel cell system as recited in claim 4 wherein the control unit has a detector for detecting insulation faults in the fuel cell cooling system.

6 . The fuel cell system as recited in claim 1 wherein the at least one cooler is arranged in the coolant path and connected to at least one sacrificial anode.

7 . The fuel cell system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a deionization filter.

8 . A vehicle comprising the fuel cell system as recited in claim 1 .

Assignees

• Volkswagen Ag

Inventors

• Kirchhoff Maren Ramona
• Rink Nadine
• Moebius Maik
• Engler Frank Juergen

Classifications

• C23F13/08 Primary

  Electrodes specially adapted for inhibiting corrosion by cathodic protection; Manufacture thereof; Conducting electric current thereto · CPC title

• H01M8/04992

  characterised by the implementation of mathematical or computational algorithms, e.g. feedback control loops, fuzzy logic, neural networks or artificial intelligence · CPC title

• H01M8/04029 Primary

  Heat exchange using liquids · CPC title

• H01M8/04097

  with recycling of the reactants (H01M8/04119, H01M8/04104 take precedence) · CPC title

• H01M8/04686 Primary

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