A geothermal heat extractor includes a heat transfer fluid and a heat transfer fluid supply conduit. The heat transfer fluid is maintained in the supply conduit in a liquid state at a pressure above its saturation pressure. The geothermal heat extractor further includes a heat transfer fluid return conduit, a geothermal heat source coupled thereto, at least one flow control valve configured to control the flow of the heat transfer fluid from the supply conduit to the return conduit, and an external load coupled to the return conduit. As the heat transfer fluid is provided to the return conduit in the liquid state, the heat transfer fluid vaporizes in the return conduit by heat supplied to the return conduit from the geothermal heat source. The vaporized heat transfer fluid is supplied from the return conduit to the external load.

A fuel cell system for generating power by supplying anode gas and cathode gas to a fuel cell, comprising a compressor for supplying the cathode gas to the fuel cell, a pulsating operation unit causing a pressure of the anode gas to pulsate based on an operation state of the fuel cell system, a first target pressure setting unit setting a first target pressure of the cathode gas based on a request of the fuel cell, a second target pressure setting unit setting a second target pressure of the cathode gas for keeping a differential pressure in the fuel cell to be within a permissible differential pressure range according to the pressure of the anode gas in the fuel cell, and a compressor control unit controlling the compressor based on the first target pressure and the second target pressure. The second target pressure setting unit sets the second target pressure based on an upper limit target pressure in pulsation on the pulsation of the pressure of the anode gas.

A fuel cell system includes a supply unit configured to supply cathode gas to a fuel cell, a bypass valve configured to bypass the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell by the supply unit, a detection unit configured to detect a state of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell without being bypassed by the bypass valve, a pressure adjusting unit configured to adjust a pressure of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell, a calculation unit configured to calculate a target flow rate and a target pressure of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell according to an operating state of the fuel cell, an operating state control unit configured to control an operation amount of at least one of the pressure adjusting unit and the supply unit on the basis of a flow rate and the pressure of the cathode gas detected by the detection unit and the target flow rate and the target pressure calculated by the calculation unit, a bypass valve control unit configured to open and close the bypass valve on the basis of the flow rate of the cathode gas detected by the detection unit and the target flow rate calculated by the calculation unit, and a pressure compensation unit configured to compensate for the pressure of the cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell by increasing the at least one operation amount controlled by the operating state control unit or by decreasing an opening speed of the bypass valve when the bypass valve is opened.

A method for diagnosing valve failure of a fuel cell system is proposed. The method comprises determining failure diagnosis target pressure from atmospheric pressure that is a real-time sensing value of an atmospheric sensor by means of a controller, controlling opening of a fuel supply valve installed in a hydrogen supply line such that stack anode-side pressure reaches the determined failure diagnosis target pressure by means of the controller, performing control for opening an integrated discharge valve installed at a water trap when the stack anode-side pressure reaches the failure diagnosis target pressure, counting a time passed after the opening, and determining whether the integrated discharge valve fails based on the time, the stack anode-side pressure, and the atmospheric pressure.

A hydrogen gas supply device supplies hydrogen gas to a fuel cell stack and includes an electromagnetic pressure regulating valve that regulates the pressure of the hydrogen gas to low pressure. The electromagnetic pressure regulating valve includes a housing, and a valve passage connecting a primary port and a secondary port is formed in the housing. A valve body controls an opening degree of the valve passage and is provided in the housing. A high-pressure sealing member and low-pressure sealing member are provided on an outer periphery of the valve body. The high-pressure sealing member and the low-pressure sealing member are provided in this order from one end side of the valve body to the other end side thereof. The electromagnetic pressure regulating valve further includes a housing pressure equalizing passage connecting the secondary port and a buffer chamber formed between the high-pressure sealing member and the low-pressure sealing member.

A fuel injection apparatus includes a valve element provided with a flow passage allowing a fuel to flow therethrough, a valve seat which the valve element will contact with or separate from, and a casing accommodating therein the valve element and the valve seat. During valve opening in which the valve element is separated from the valve seat, the fuel flowing through the flow passage is discharged through a gap between the valve element and the valve seat. A direction in which the valve seat is placed relative to the valve element is the same as a direction of the fuel flowing in the flow passage. The fuel injection apparatus further includes a discharge-side flow passage in which the fuel to be discharged during valve opening is allowed flow. The discharge-side flow passage is formed outside an outer peripheral portion of the valve seat.

The present invention is a hydrogen exhaust device for fuel cell. A tail gas discharge device for a fuel cell system includes a steam trap, a buffer solenoid valve, a buffer tank and a drain solenoid valve. The steam trap can collect water from wet hydrogen. The buffer tank is a hollow cavity structure such as a tank. Preferably, the steam trap has an upper cover, a main body, a lower cover and a filter. The upper cover has a wet hydrogen inlet, a pressure sensor, a dry hydrogen outlet and a temperature sensor. The lower cover has a liquid storage cavity and a filter support part. The filter has a filter filler and a filter intake channel.

A membrane fuel cell delimited by bipolar plates comprising a cathodic compartment and an anodic compartment, said cathodic compartment comprising means for feeding air from the bottom to the top, said anodic compartment comprising means for feeding a hydrogen-containing fuel from the top to the bottom, at least one of said cathodic and anodic compartment comprising a flow distributor consisting of a porous material and a method of operating cell said.

The present disclosure is directed towards flow structures in electrochemical cells for use in high differential pressure operations. The flow structure on the low pressure-side of the cell has a larger surface area than the flow structure on the high-pressure side of the cell at the flow structure—MEA interface. The boundary of the high pressure flow structure is entirely within the boundary of the low pressure flow structure. A seal around the high pressure flow structure is also contained within the boundary of the low pressure flow structure. In such an arrangement, high fluid pressures acting on the electrolyte membrane from the high-pressure side of the cell is fully and continuously balanced by the flow structure on the low pressure-side of the membrane. Use of the low pressure flow structure as a membrane support prevents the rupture or deformation of the membrane under high stresses.

A fuel cell system includes: a cathode pressure control unit configured to control a pressure of a cathode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell stack on the basis of a load of the fuel cell stack; and an anode pressure control unit configured to control a pressure of an anode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell stack to become higher than the pressure of the cathode gas so that a differential pressure between the pressure of the anode gas and the pressure of the cathode gas becomes a predetermined differential pressure or lower. The anode pressure control unit controls, at a time of recovery from idle stop, the pressure of the anode gas to be supplied to the fuel cell stack to a recovery-time pressure, the recovery-time pressure being obtained by adding the predetermined differential pressure to a predetermined pressure corresponding to an atmosphere pressure.