A four-fluid bipolar plate for a fuel cell includes a nonporous sub-plate comprising a first reactant half-plate joined to a second reactant half-plate. The nonporous sub-plate includes an internal coolant passage network having coolant flow field passages extending across an active area of the fuel cell. The nonporous sub-plate defines fuel supply and fuel return internal manifolds, oxidant supply and oxidant return internal manifolds, water management supply and water management return internal manifolds, and coolant supply and coolant return internal manifolds. The internal coolant passage network may have secondary cooling functions, such as a reactant coolant loop surrounding an internal reactant internal manifold, providing a heat exchange area to cool incoming reactant gas, and cooling the interfacial and porous sub-plate seals.

A combined cooling and humidifying system for a fuel cell system includes a first line strand, second line strand, gas separator, and water feed device. The first line strand has a supply line for feeding water to a heat exchanger of the fuel cell system and a return line for receiving a water-steam mixture from the fuel cell system. The gas separator is in the return line to at least partially separate the steam from the water-steam mixture and provide it at a steam connection. The second line strand has a fluid inlet for feeding a gaseous fluid to the fuel cell system. The steam connection is coupled to the second line strand downstream of the fluid inlet to admix steam with the fluid. The water feed device is coupled to the supply line to compensate for a separating mass flow of steam in the first line strand.

Disclosed is a cooling apparatus of a fuel cell vehicle, including an air supply part, an air conditioning part that cools air discharged from the air supply part, and a valve provided at a rear end of the air supply part and that communicates cooled air discharged from the air supply part with a fuel cell part or a battery.

A linear time varying model predictive control (LTV-MPC) framework is developed for degradation-conscious control of automotive polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell systems. A reduced-order nonlinear model of the entire system is derived first. This nonlinear model is then successively linearized about the current operating point to obtain a linear model. The linear model is utilized to formulate the control problem using a rate-based MPC formulation. The controller objective is to ensure offset-free tracking of the power demand, while maximizing the overall system efficiency and enhancing its durability. To this end, the fuel consumption and the power loss due to auxiliary equipment are minimized. Moreover, the internal states of the fuel cell stack are constrained to avoid harmful conditions that are known stressors of the fuel cell components.

Proposed are a fuel cell membrane humidifier and a fuel cell system having the same in which humidification by moisture exchange and cooling by heat exchange are performed in one membrane humidifier such that the fuel cell system can be simplified and be miniaturized. The fuel cell membrane humidifier includes a housing part having a space divided by a partition, a humidification module formed in a first portion of the divided space and having a plurality of hollow fiber membranes allowing a first fluid flowing thereinside to perform moisture exchange with a second fluid flowing thereoutside, a heat exchange module formed in a second portion of the divided space and configured to cool a first fluid flowing inside the heat exchange module, and a flow control part configured to actively control a flow direction of the first fluid.

An air cooler includes: a cooler main body having a first zone and a second zone partitioned off from the first zone; cooling flow paths configured to cool the air and disposed in the first zone so that the air introduced into the cooler main body passes therethrough; bypass flow paths configured to allow the air to bypass the cooling flow paths and disposed in the second zone so that the air introduced into the cooler main body passes therethrough; and an opening/closing unit configured to selectively open or close the cooling flow paths, thereby obtaining an advantageous effect of simplifying a structure thereof and optimizing water balance of a fuel cell stack.

Methods and systems are provided for a cooling system for a vehicle having a fuel cell system. The cooling system comprises a first cooling circuit configured to cool a first set of vehicle components and a second cooling circuit configured to cool a second set of vehicle components. The fuel cell system is distributed between the first set of vehicle components and the second set of vehicle components.

In a case where each of the temperature, the impedance, and the output current of a fuel cell stack falls within a predetermined range, the output voltage of the fuel cell stack is measured, and the measured output voltage is compared with a reference value to thereby determine the degree of degradation of the fuel cell stack.

A bipolar fuel cell plate (300) for use in a fuel cell comprising a plurality of flow field channels (704) and a coolant distribution structure (708) formed as part of the fluid flow field plate. The coolant distribution structure is configured to direct coolant droplets (701) into the flow field channels. The coolant distribution structure comprises one or more elements (710) associated with one or more flow field channels, the elements having a first surface (712) for receiving a coolant droplet and a second surface (714) having a shape that defines a coolant droplet detachment region for directing a coolant droplet into the associated field flow channel.

A cooling water direct injection type fuel cell is provided. The fuel cell includes an air-side separator that has an air channel through which air flows, and a cooling water inlet aperture that is formed on an introduction portion of the air channel. A hydrogen-side separator is joined with the air-side separator and has a protrusion that is inserted into the cooling water inlet aperture. The protrusion has a diameter less than a diameter of the cooling water inlet aperture to form a gap between an outer circumferential surface of the protrusion and an inner circumferential surface of the cooling water inlet aperture. Cooling water drawn into space between the junction surfaces of the air-side separator and the hydrogen-side separator is discharged through the gap between the protrusion and the cooling water inlet aperture, is mixed with introduced air, and then is drawn into the air channel.