The invention concerns a vehicle comprising an electricity production unit configured for generating an electrical current, a transformer unit and a fuel storage unit, the production unit comprising at least two fuel cell stacks and a single first electrical connection interface for transmitting the electrical current to the transformer unit. The production unit further comprises a single cooling circuit, an air supply circuit and a single gaseous hydrogen supply circuit for supplying gaseous hydrogen, from the fuel storage unit, to each fuel cell stack. The production unit is separate from the fuel storage unit and connected to the fuel storage unit by a single connection interface, the production unit being removable from the vehicle as an integrated unit independently from the fuel storage unit.

To provide an electrical power system and an electrical power control device that make it possible to suppress deterioration of a fuel cell compared to that conventional seen. An electrical power system according to an embodiment includes a fuel cell, a heat source, a heat dissipator, and a controller. The fuel cell is configured to generate electrical power through electrochemical reactions to generate first heat. The heat source operates to generate second heat. The heat dissipator is configured to dissipate the first heat and the second heat. The controller is configured to control the fuel cell to allow, when the heat source is in operation, an amount of the first heat to be equal to or below an available heat dissipation capacity acquired by subtracting an amount of the second heat from a maximum amount of heat to be dissipated from the heat dissipator.

There is provided a fuel cell system which can be started quickly, the configuration of which can be simplified and which enables cost reduction. The fuel cell system is a fuel cell system including a first power supply organizer, the first power supply organizer including a plurality of fuel cell stacks, an oxidant gas channel distributing and supplying oxidant gas to each of the fuel cell stacks, and an air supplier provided for each of the fuel cell stacks, wherein a battery is electrically connected to at least the air supplier of a fuel cell stack connected to the oxidant gas channel on a most upstream side among the plurality of fuel cell stacks.

A fuel cell system includes fuel cell modules connected in parallel and each including fuel cell stacks connected in series. A tester includes: an output power acquirer that acquires an output power value for each fuel cell stack; a deterioration estimator that estimates a degree of future deterioration for each fuel cell stack; and a future output power estimator that estimates, for each fuel cell stack, a future output power value, which is a value of power that is likely to be outputted after a specific period of time has passed, based on the degree of future deterioration estimated by the deterioration estimator. The fuel cell stack combining method includes determining combinations of the fuel cell stacks based on differences in the output power value between the fuel cell stacks and differences in the future output power value between the fuel cell stacks.

To provide an electrical power system and an electrical power control device that make it possible to improve fuel efficiency compared to that conventionally possible. An electrical power system according to an embodiment includes fuel cells at a count of n, n representing an integer of 2 or greater, and a controller. The fuel cells are each configured to generate electrical power through electrochemical reactions. The controller is configured to set, based on a required output required in accordance with electrical power to be consumed by a load, an operation mode for each of the fuel cells to one mode determined from a plurality of modes including a first electrical power generation mode under which starting and stopping of generation of electrical power are repeated, a second electrical power generation mode under which generation of electrical power continues, and a stop mode under which generation of electrical power is stopped.

Described herein is a battery pack cell state of charge balancing system (1). A battery pack (2) of the system comprises a plurality of serially connected battery pack cells (BAT1-BATn), each of which (BATx) comprises one or more battery cells connected in parallel. For each respective battery pack cell (BATx) there is a set of serially connected fuel cells (FCx) at battery pack cell voltage level. Each respective set (FCx) is selectively connectable in parallel to a respective corresponding battery pack cell (BATx) by closing a respective first switch (SWx), for charging or boosting battery pack cell (BATx) power output. Each set (FCx) includes a respective DC-DC converter, arranged to regulate the operating point of the set (FCx) to its maximum power point or uniquely selected other operating point, to maintain the respective battery pack cell (BATx) at a defined state of charge for all battery pack cells (BAT1-BATn) constituting the battery pack (2).

In a method of operating a fuel cell system, a stable-period voltage difference is calculated in a state where output power of the fuel cell stack is stable. Thereafter, a voltage difference is calculated during power generation. Then, it is determined whether or not the change amount of the voltage difference with respect to the stable-period voltage difference has exceeded a predetermined threshold value. When it is determined that the change amount has exceeded the predetermined threshold value, electric power is generated with the supply amount of the anode gas to the fuel cell stack being increased.

A method of distributing power in a fuel cell system including a plurality of fuel cell stacks, includes determining, by a controller, a total system power demand, which is a power demand of the fuel cell system, determining an operation order of the fuel cell stacks based on a state of the fuel cell stacks, determining the number of operation fuel cell stacks among the plurality of fuel cell stacks based on the total system power demand and an average available power of the fuel cell stacks, determining operation target fuel cell stacks based on the operation order of the fuel cell stacks and the number of operation fuel cell stacks, and determining a power demand of each of the operation target fuel cell stacks based on the total system power demand and an effective catalyst reaction area ratio of each fuel cell stack included in the operation target fuel cell stacks.

During performance of low efficiency power generation, a control device controls the flow rate of feed of the oxidizing agent gas so that the amount of heat generation of the fuel cell accompanying power generation loss becomes a first amount of heat generation when the state of a mount on which the fuel cell system is mounted is a first mode and controls the flow rate of feed of the oxidizing agent gas so that the amount of heat generation becomes a second amount of heat generation smaller than the first amount of heat generation when the state of the mount is a second mode where the generated electric power of the fuel cell fluctuates more easily compared with the first mode.

A fuel cell system includes a supply valve for supplying an anode gas into an anode system, a purge valve for discharging an off-gas from the anode system, a pressure detecting portion configured to estimate or measures a pressure inside the anode system, a supply valve control portion configured to control an open/close operation of the supply valve based on a load of the fuel cell, a purge flow rate estimating portion configured to estimate a purge flow rate of the off-gas discharged from the anode system through the purge valve based on a pressure decrease inside the anode system in a supply valve close state, and a purge valve control portion configured to open the purge valve in synchronization with the supply valve close state.