Fuel cell system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018151902-A1
Application number	US-201715818744-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 21, 2017
Priority date	Nov 28, 2016
Publication date	May 31, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

A fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell that generates electricity by an electrochemical reaction of a fuel gas with an oxidant gas; a supply channel that supplies the fuel gas to an anode; a recycle channel that supplies an anode off-gas discharged from the anode, as the fuel gas, to the supply channel; a discharge channel that is connected to the recycle channel between the anode and the circulation pump, that is arranged in the recycle channel, and that discharges the anode off-gas to outside; a controller that brings a purge valve, that is provided on the discharge channel, into an open state and determines whether a purge operation to discharge the anode off-gas to the outside is abnormal, and performs an operation to decrease a flow rate of the fuel gas supplied to the anode when determining that the purge operation is abnormal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A fuel cell system, comprising:
a fuel cell that generates electricity by an electrochemical reaction of a fuel gas supplied to an anode with an oxidant gas supplied to a cathode; a supply channel that supplies the fuel gas to the anode; a recycle channel that supplies an anode off-gas discharged from the anode to the supply channel; a circulation pump that is arranged in the recycle channel; a discharge channel that is connected to the recycle channel between the anode and the circulation pump and that discharges the anode off-gas to outside; a purge valve that is provided on the discharge channel; and a controller, wherein: the controller determines whether a purge operation in which the purge valve is brought into an open state to discharge the anode off-gas to the outside is abnormal, and when the controller determines that the purge operation is abnormal, the controller performs a decreasing operation to decrease a flow rate of the fuel gas supplied to the anode.

2 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein
the decreasing operation includes an operation to decrease a flow rate of the anode off-gas flowing through the recycle channel by using the circulation pump.

3 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein
the decreasing operation includes an operation to decrease an amount of the electricity generated in the fuel cell.

4 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein
when the controller determines that the purge operation is abnormal, the controller performs the decreasing operation after a flow rate of the fuel gas supplied to the fuel cell is increased.

5 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein
when the controller determines that the purge operation is abnormal after the decreasing operation is performed, the controller stops the fuel cell system.

6 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 further comprising:
a voltage detector that detects a voltage of the generated electricity in the fuel cell, wherein
the controller determines that the purge operation is abnormal when the voltage of the generated electricity during the purge operation is below a predetermined voltage.

7 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 further comprising:
a flow rate detector that detects at least one of a flow rate of the fuel gas flowing through the supply channel and a flow rate of the anode off-gas flowing through the discharge channel, wherein
the controller determines that the purge operation is abnormal when the flow rate during the purge operation is below a predetermined flow rate.

8 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein:
the fuel gas contains hydrogen, the fuel cell system further comprises: a concentration detector that detects hydrogen concentration of the anode off-gas discharged to the outside, and the controller determines that the purge operation is abnormal when the hydrogen concentration during the purge operation is below a predetermined concentration.

9 . The fuel cell system according to claim 1 further comprising:
a pressure adjuster that adjusts a pressure of the fuel gas flowing through the supply channel.

10 . The fuel cell system according to claim 9 , wherein
the pressure adjuster is a governor.

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Morita Junji
• Yukimasa Akinori
• Ise Takehiko
• Abe Miki
• Usuki Yoshito

Classifications

• H01M8/04664

  Failure or abnormal function · CPC title

• H01M8/04097

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

• H01M8/04462

  of anode exhausts · CPC title

• H01M8/04552

  of the individual fuel cell · CPC title

• H01M2008/1095

  Fuel cells with polymeric electrolytes · CPC title