Fuel cell stack protection method, device and fuel cell power supply system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022407095-A1
Application number	US-202017642912-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 16, 2020
Priority date	Sep 16, 2019
Publication date	Dec 22, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present invention provides a fuel cell stack protection method, a fuel cell stack protection device and a fuel cell power supply system. The method comprises: determining whether a load-dump failure occurs to the fuel cell; controlling the bleeder circuit connected to the output ends of a DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell so as to discharge the DC-DC circuit when a load-dump failure occurs to the fuel cell. When a load-dump failure occurs to the fuel cell, the bleeder circuit connected to the output ends of the DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell is turned on to discharge the DC-DC circuit so that the DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell can continue to output a current, thus preventing the voltage of a fuel cell stack from rising abruptly because of a load-dump failure and preventing any damage caused by a load-dump failure to the fuel cell stack

First claim

1 . A fuel cell stack protection method, comprising:
determining whether a load-dump failure occurs to a fuel cell; and controlling a bleeder circuit connected to the output ends of a DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell so as to discharge the DC-DC circuit when a load-dump failure occurs to the fuel cell.

2 . The fuel cell stack protection method as claimed in claim 1 , characterised in that controlling the bleeder circuit connected to the output ends of a DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell so as to discharge the DC-DC circuit comprises:
acquiring the output power of the fuel cell, denoted as a target power, before a load-dump failure occurs; and controlling the turn-on of the bleeder circuit connected to the output ends of the DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell and regulating the output voltage of the DC-DC circuit according to the output power so that the bleeder power of the bleeder circuit is the target power.

3 . The fuel cell stack protection method as claimed in claim 1 , characterised in that after controlling the bleeder circuit connected to the output ends of a DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell so as to discharge the DC-DC circuit, the method further comprises:
reducing the amount of fuel injected into the fuel cell according to a first preset gradient; and lowering the output voltage of the DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell according to a second preset gradient.

4 . The fuel cell stack protection method as claimed in claim 3 , characterised in that before lowering the output voltage of a DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell according to a second preset gradient, the method further comprises:
acquiring a second preset gradient matching the first preset gradient on the basis of a preset gradient mapping list in which the mapping between the first preset gradient and the second preset gradient is stored.

5 . The fuel cell stack protection method as claimed in claim 1 , characterised in that after controlling the bleeder circuit connected to the output ends of a DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell so as to discharge the DC-DC circuit, the method further comprises:
monitoring the bleeder power of the bleeder circuit in real time, and turning off the bleeder circuit to turn off the stack pre-charging unit in the fuel cell when detecting that the bleeder power of the bleeder circuit drops to a preset safety threshold.

6 . A fuel cell stack protection device, comprising:
a failure detection unit, configured to determine whether a load-dump failure occurs to a fuel cell; and a bleeder control unit, configured to control the bleeder circuit connected to the output ends of a DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell so as to discharge the DC-DC circuit when a load-dump failure occurs to the fuel cell.

7 . The fuel cell stack protection device as claimed in claim 6 , characterised in that the bleeder control unit is configured to:
acquire the output power of the fuel cell, denoted as a target power, before a load-dump failure occurs; and control the turn-on of the bleeder circuit connected to the output ends of a DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell and regulate the output voltage of the DC-DC circuit according to the output power so that the bleeder power of the bleeder circuit is the target power.

8 . The fuel cell stack protection device as claimed in claim 6 , characterised in that the device further comprises:
a fuel regulation unit, configured to reduce the amount of fuel injected into the fuel cell according to a first preset gradient and lower the output voltage of the DC-DC circuit in the fuel cell according to a second preset gradient.

9 . The fuel cell stack protection device as claimed in claim 6 , characterised in that the bleeder control unit is further configured to:
monitor the bleeder power of the bleeder circuit in real time, and turn off the bleeder circuit to turn off the stack pre-charging unit in the fuel cell when detecting that the bleeder power of the bleeder circuit drops to a preset safety threshold.

10 . A fuel cell power supply system, comprising a fuel cell controller comprising a fuel cell stack protection device as claimed in claim 6 .

Assignees

• Ceres Ip Co Ltd

Inventors

• Sun Lei

Classifications

• B60L2210/10

  DC to DC converters · CPC title

• B60L3/0053 Primary

  relating to fuel cells · CPC title

• B60Y2400/102

  for hydrogen fuel · CPC title

• B60L58/30 Primary

  for monitoring or controlling fuel cells · CPC title

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title