Fuel cell system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9780397-B2
Application number	US-201415026426-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 10, 2014
Priority date	Oct 1, 2013
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

There is provided a fuel cell system that generates an electric power by supplying an anode gas and a cathode gas to a fuel cell. The fuel cell system includes: auxiliary machines and a drive motor driven by the generated electric power of the fuel cell; a pressure control unit configured to control a pressure of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell at a normal target pressure, the normal target pressure being used for ensuring an oxygen partial pressure within the fuel cell in accordance with the generated electric power of the fuel cell; and a warming-up pressure control unit configured to control the pressure of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell to become a predetermined warm-up acceleration target pressure during warm-up of the fuel cell, the predetermined warm-up acceleration target pressure being higher than the normal target pressure. In a case where there is a request to drive the drive motor during the warm-up of the fuel cell, the warming-up pressure control unit controls the pressure of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell to a warm-up target pressure between the normal target pressure and the warm-up acceleration target pressure.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A fuel cell system configured to generate an electric power by supplying an anode gas and a cathode gas to a fuel cell, the fuel cell system comprising:
auxiliary machines and a drive motor driven by the generated electric power of the fuel cell; and
a controller programmed to:
control a pressure of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell at a normal target pressure, the normal target pressure being used for ensuring an oxygen partial pressure within the fuel cell in accordance with the generated electric power of the fuel cell; and
control the pressure of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell to become a predetermined warm-up acceleration target pressure during warm-up of the fuel cell, the predetermined warm-up acceleration target pressure being higher than the normal target pressure,
wherein, the controller is further programmed to control, in a case where there is a request to drive the drive motor during the warm-up of the fuel cell, the pressure of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell to a warm-up target pressure between the normal target pressure and the warm-up acceleration target pressure.

2. The fuel cell system according to claim 1 ,
wherein the controller is further programmed to calculate the warm-up target pressure by adding a correction value to the normal target pressure, and
wherein the controller is further programmed to determine that the correction value is set up to become larger as an amount of moisture within the fuel cell is larger.

3. The fuel cell system according to claim 2 ,
wherein the controller is further programmed to determine that the amount of moisture within the fuel cell is larger as temperature of the fuel cell is lower.

4. The fuel cell system according to claim 2 ,
wherein the controller is further programmed to determine that the amount of moisture within the fuel cell is larger as an HFR of the fuel cell is smaller.

5. The fuel cell system according to claim 2 ,
Wherein the controller is further programmed to:
calculate a maximum generated electric power of the fuel cell during the warm-up on the basis of temperature of the fuel cell;
calculate a surplus electric power of the fuel cell on the basis of the maximum generated electric power and a required electric power of the drive motor; and
calculate a maximum target pressure of the cathode gas when the drive motor is driven during the warm-up on the basis of the surplus electric power,
wherein the controller is further programmed to control the pressure of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell so as to become the maximum target pressure when the maximum target pressure is higher than the warm-up target pressure.

6. The fuel cell system according to claim 3 ,
wherein the controller is further programmed to determine that the amount of moisture within the fuel cell is larger as an HFR of the fuel cell is smaller.

7. The fuel cell system according to claim 3 ,
wherein the controller is further programmed to:
calculate a maximum generated electric power of the fuel cell during the warm-up on the basis of temperature of the fuel cell;
calculate a surplus electric power of the fuel cell on the basis of the maximum generated electric power and a required electric power of the drive motor; and
calculate a maximum target pressure of the cathode gas when the drive motor is driven during the warm-up on the basis of the surplus electric power, and
wherein the controller is further programmed to control the pressure of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell so as to become the maximum target pressure when the maximum target pressure is higher than the warm-up target pressure.

8. The fuel cell system according to claim 4 ,
wherein the controller is further programmed to:
calculate a maximum generated electric power of the fuel cell during the warm-up on the basis of temperature of the fuel cell;
calculate a surplus electric power of the fuel cell on the basis of the maximum generated electric power and a required electric power of the drive motor; and
calculate a maximum target pressure of the cathode gas when the drive motor is driven during the warm-up on the basis of the surplus electric power, and
wherein the controller is further programmed to control the pressure of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell so as to become the maximum target pressure when the maximum target pressure is higher than the warm-up target pressure.

Assignees

• Nissan Motor

Inventors

• Hoshi Kiyoshi

Classifications

• H01M8/04104

  Regulation of differential pressures · CPC title

• B60L11/1885

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• H01M8/1004

  characterised by membrane-electrode assemblies [MEA] (H01M8/12 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01M8/04619

  of fuel cell stacks · CPC title

• H01M8/04225 Primary

  during start-up · CPC title