Fuel cell system and method of controlling the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017170501-A1
Application number	US-201615143789-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 2, 2016
Priority date	Dec 11, 2015
Publication date	Jun 15, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A fuel cell system and a method of controlling the same are provided. The fuel cell system includes a supplying pipe that supplies hydrogen and air to a stack and a gas concentration sensor that senses hydrogen and air impurities supplied to the supplying pipe. A supplying valve is disposed in the supplying pipe to adjust the hydrogen and air supply and a discharging pipe discharges the hydrogen and the air from the stack. A discharging valve is disposed in the discharging pipe to adjust the discharging of the hydrogen and the air. A controller operates with the gas concentration sensor to detect introduction of the impurities. Exhaust valves are disposed at the front and rear end of the stack to remove a polluted fuel when the impurities are introduced. When performance deteriorates due to the impurities, a cause of deterioration is determined, and stack performance is recovered.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A fuel cell system, comprising:
a supplying pipe configured to supply hydrogen and air to a stack; a gas concentration sensor configured to sense impurities of the hydrogen and the air supplied to the supplying pipe; a supplying valve disposed in the supplying pipe to adjust the supplying of the hydrogen and the air; a discharging pipe configured to discharge the hydrogen and the air from the stack; a discharging valve disposed in the discharging pipe to adjust the discharging of the hydrogen and the air; a controller configured to be operated together with the gas concentration sensor to detect introduction of the impurities; and exhaust valves disposed at a front end and a rear end of the stack to remove a polluted fuel in response to detecting the introduction of the impurities.

2 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein the controller includes:
a controlling part configured to store a driving condition including temperature, humidification, and pressure while a vehicle is being driven to determine whether the driving condition is normal and a level of normality; and a diagnosing part configured to be operated together with the controlling part and determine the driving condition and a diagnosed resistance value to determine whether the impurities are introduced and a level of the introduction of the impurities using the controlling part.

3 . The fuel cell system according to claim 2 , wherein the controlling part is configured to recover performance of the stack after the fuel is removed.

4 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a stack inlet blocking valve disposed between the supplying pipe and the stack to block introduction of the hydrogen or the air into the stack.

5 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the supplying pipe includes: a hydrogen supplying pipe configured to supply the hydrogen and an air supplying pipe configured to supply the air, the gas concentration sensor includes a hydrogen gas concentration sensor configured to sense the impurities of the hydrogen and an air gas concentration sensor configured to sense the impurities of the air, the supplying valve includes a hydrogen supplying valve configured to adjust the supplying of the hydrogen and an air supplying valve configured to adjust the supplying of the air, the discharging pipe includes a hydrogen discharging pipe configured to discharge the hydrogen and an air discharging pipe configured to discharge the air, and the discharging valve includes a hydrogen discharging valve configured to adjust the discharging of the hydrogen and an air discharging valve configured to adjust the discharging of the air.

6 . A method of controlling a fuel cell system, comprising:
measuring, by a controller, a stack voltage during driving of a fuel cell vehicle after hydrogen is charged in the fuel cell vehicle using a sensor; determining, by the controller, whether the stack voltage is less than a reference voltage; determining, by the controller, that purity of the hydrogen is abnormal to confirm a driving condition when the stack voltage is less than the reference voltage; determining whether the driving condition is normal; exhausting, removing, and refilling, by the controller, a polluted fuel when the driving condition is normal; determining, by the controller, whether the fuel cell vehicle requires additional driving for a short period of time; performing, by the controller, a logic of repeating start-on/off when the fuel cell vehicle additional driving for the short period of time; determining, by the controller, whether performance of a stack is recovered; and determining, by the controller, that the performance reaches a normal state to end the logic, when the performance is recovered.

7 . The method of controlling a fuel cell system according to claim 6 , wherein the driving condition includes temperature, pressure, coolant, and humidification states.

8 . The method of controlling a fuel cell system according to claim 6 , wherein when the stack voltage is greater than the reference voltage, the purity of the hydrogen is determined to be normal.

9 . The method of controlling a fuel cell system according to claim 6 , wherein when the driving condition is abnormal, whether the performance is deteriorated based on the driving condition is determined.

10 . The method of controlling a fuel cell system according to claim 6 , wherein when the fuel cell vehicle does not require additional driving for a short period of time, of the method includes opening, by the controller, an air blocking valve based on the start-off of the fuel cell vehicle.

11 . The method of controlling a fuel cell system according to claim 6 , wherein when the performance is not recovered, the method includes repeating, by the controller, an additional recovering logic to perform an additional check.

Assignees

• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Im Se Joon
• Paek Jun Yeol

Classifications

• H01M8/04559

  of fuel cell stacks · CPC title

• H01M8/04798 Primary

  of fuel cell reactants · CPC title

• H01M8/0432

  Temperature; Ambient temperature · CPC title

• H01M8/0438

  Pressure; Ambient pressure; Flow · CPC title

• H01M8/04492

  Humidity; Ambient humidity; Water content · CPC title