A fuel cell ship includes a propulsion device that generates propulsive force on a hull by electric power, an electric power supply unit that supplies the electric power to the propulsion device, and a degradation rate control unit that adjusts a degradation rate. The electric power supply unit includes a plurality of fuel cells that generate electric power by an electrochemical reaction of fuel and at least one storage battery.

To provide an air-cooled fuel cell system configured to suppress thermal runaway. An air-cooled fuel cell system, wherein the air-cooled fuel cell system comprises: a fuel cell, a first temperature acquirer, a second temperature acquirer and a controller; wherein the fuel cell comprises a cooling fin made of a metal; wherein the first temperature acquirer is disposed at a position which is near a cooling air inlet of the fuel cell and which is apart from the cooling fin; wherein the second temperature acquirer is disposed to come into contact with the cooling fin; wherein the controller monitors temperatures acquired by the first and second temperature acquirers.

A fuel cell recovery control system and method are provided to supply hydrogen to the cathode of a fuel cell stack to remove an oxide film formed on a platinum surface of the cathode. The performance of the fuel cell stack is recovered in accordance with the oxide film removal. In addition, electric power generated during the performance recovery of the fuel cell stack is consumed in an inverter and, as such, overcharge of a battery is prevented.

A control method for a fuel cell system includes: acquiring a poisoning rate of an electrode catalyst of a fuel cell; performing a potential maintaining operation of maintaining a potential of the fuel cell in a first potential range when the poisoning rate of the electrode catalyst is greater than a prescribed value α; and performing a potential changing operation of repeating a cycle in which the potential of the fuel cell is changed between an upper-limit potential and a lower-limit potential of a second potential range which is higher than the first potential range after the potential maintaining operation has been performed.

In one or more embodiments of the novel aircraft fuel cell system without the use of a buffer battery, the fuel cell and compressor would be sized sufficiently larger for the intended application, allowing the compressor to change speeds much faster. This in turn would allow power outputs to change much quicker. If power outputs can change as quickly as the application dictates, then a buffer battery is not necessary. In one or more embodiments, because the system is mostly electronically controlled, software can be written to protect the fuel cell from instantaneous power spikes. If a large power output is suddenly requested of the fuel cell, the software can smooth out the demand curve to provide an easier load profile to follow.

A control system and method for preventing a fuel cell from overheating are disclosed. The system includes: a fuel cell that generates electric power through reaction of fuel gas and oxidation gas; a cooling line in which a cooling medium flows and performs heat exchange with the fuel cell; a cooling pump installed on the cooling line and configured to circulate the cooling medium through the cooling line; a cooling controller that controls an operating state of the cooling pump on the basis of the temperature of the fuel cell or the cooling medium; and a power generation controller that limits power generation of the fuel cell on the basis of the operating state of the cooling pump.

A rational fuel-cell power following strategy is made according to values such as vehicle fuel-cell power, battery power, and SOC (state of charge) of a lithium-ion battery; in the same time window, effects of different fuel-cell power growth rates on SOC of the lithium-ion battery are tested according to vehicle requirements; and at the same fuel-cell growth rate, effects of different time windows on SOC of the lithium-ion battery are tested according to vehicle requirements; a proper time window and a proper fuel-cell power change rate are found, so that the SOC value of the lithium-ion battery fluctuates within a certain range. The present invention can achieve a good operation mode of power distribution between the fuel cell and the lithium-ion battery, ensuring rational utilization of resources, thereby extending the application range of the lithium-ion battery to the maximum extent.

A power management method includes a step A of specifying an influence of a distributed power supply on a power demand-supply balance by a power management server, the power management server managing a plurality of facilities and the distributed power supply being individually provided in each of the plurality of facilities; and a step B of transmitting distributed power supply information from a local control apparatus to the power management server, the local control apparatus being individually provided in each of the plurality of facilities and the distributed power supply information including information indicating an operation state of the distributed power supply, wherein the step A includes a step of specifying the influence on the power demand-supply-demand balance based on the distributed power supply information.

A system for operating a fuel cell includes a controller configured to derive an output limit value of the fuel cell through an interval average value corresponding to an average of output values of the fuel cell for a designated time and a cumulative average value corresponding to an average of the output values of the fuel cell until the current point in time after starting to operate the fuel cell, and to control operation of the fuel cell based on the derived output limit value.

A fuel cell system configured to supply electric power to load includes: a fuel cell; and a control unit configured to set target electric power to be generated by the fuel cell and control electric power generation by the fuel cell such that the fuel cell generates the target electric power. The control unit is configured to, when setting the target electric power using request electric power that the load requests the fuel cell to generate, execute a fluctuation suppression process for making a fluctuation of the target electric power smaller than a fluctuation of the request electric power.