Fuel cell vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9537159-B2
Application number	US-45109508-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 9, 2008
Priority date	May 11, 2007
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

In a fuel cell vehicle of the present invention, a floor panel is constructed to have a center tunnel formed to extend in a front-rear direction of the vehicle. A fluid distributor provided below the floor panel is at least partly located in the center tunnel and is operative to distribute a supply of a fluid in a vehicle width direction. At least one fuel cell stack is provided adjacent to the fluid distributor in the vehicle width direction below the floor panel and is operative to receive the distributive supply of the fluid from the fluid distributor. This fuel cell system has an efficient component layout from the total standpoint of the operability and the space efficiency.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A fuel cell vehicle, comprising:
a fuel cell vehicle body with a floor panel configured to have a center tunnel formed to extend in a front-rear direction of the vehicle;
a fluid distributor provided below the floor panel to be at least partly located in the center tunnel and operative to distribute a fluid in a vehicle width direction; and
a plurality of fuel cell stacks provided below the floor panel, arranged across the fluid distributor to be disposed on respective sides of the fluid distributor in the vehicle width direction, and configured to receive a supply of the fluid from the fluid distributor, wherein
each cell of a first fuel cell stack of the plurality of fuel cell stacks is stacked in the vehicle width direction with respect to every other cell of the first fuel cell stack,
the fluid distributor is provided with a fuel gas supply pipe, an anode off-gas exhaust pipe, an oxidant gas supply pipe, a cathode off-gas exhaust pipe, a cooling liquid supply pipe and a cooling liquid discharge pipe, the cooling liquid supply pipe being arranged to supply cooling liquid to the fluid distributor and not being directly connected to the plurality of fuel cell stacks, and the cooling liquid discharge pipe being arranged to discharge cooling liquid to outside of the fluid distributor and not being directly connected to the plurality of fuel cell stacks, and
the cooling liquid discharge pipe is located above all of the cooling liquid supply pipe, the fuel gas supply pipe, the anode off-gas exhaust pipe, the oxidant gas supply pipe and the cathode off-gas exhaust pipe in at least the center tunnel.

2. The fuel cell vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the cooling liquid supply pipe is located above at least one of the fuel gas supply pipe, the anode off-gas exhaust pipe, the oxidant gas supply pipe and the cathode off-gas exhaust pipe in at least the center tunnel.

3. The fuel cell vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
each of the oxidant gas supply pipe and the cathode off-gas exhaust pipe is provided with a valve activated to open in response to an increase of in-pipe pressure.

4. The fuel cell vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the anode off-gas exhaust pipe has a restriction element and a valve activated in response to an increase of in-pipe pressure to control restricting function of the restriction element.

5. The fuel cell vehicle according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a drive system configured to drive the vehicle;
a power controller provided to supply electric power, which is generated by and is output from the fuel cell stack, to the drive system; and
a power supply circuit located at least partly inside the center tunnel and configured to have a power line operative to electrically connect the power controller with the fuel cell stack and a relay operative to block an electrical connection, wherein
the relay is accessible downward from the center tunnel.

6. The fuel cell vehicle according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an electrical component electrically connected with the fuel cell stack and located on the fuel cell stack.

Assignees

• Jufuku Yasunobu
• Arisawa Hiroshi
• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Jufuku Yasunobu
• Arisawa Hiroshi

Classifications

• H01M8/2465

  Details of groupings of fuel cells · CPC title

• Y02T90/34

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title

• H01M8/04089

  of gaseous reactants · CPC title

• B60L11/1898

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic