H01M8/04589

Fuel cell system and refrigerant flow rate estimation method for the same
11545682 · 2023-01-03 · ·

A fuel cell system including: a fuel cell group; a refrigerant distribution passage; a pre-distribution refrigerant flow rate acquiring unit configured to acquire a first outlet temperature flow rate; a first outlet temperature detecting unit that is configured to detect a first outlet temperature; a voltage acquiring unit configured to acquire at least a first voltage that is a voltage of the first fuel cell; a current acquiring unit configured to acquire at least a first current; and a controller that calculates a first individual supply flow rate of the first fuel cell on the basis of the first voltage, the first current, and the first outlet temperature, and calculates a second individual supply flow rate of at least one second fuel cell other than the first fuel cell on the basis of the first individual supply flow rate and the pre-distribution refrigerant flow rate.

System including fuel cell assembly voltage monitor

A system for capturing carbon dioxide in flue gas includes a fuel cell assembly including at least one fuel cell including a cathode portion configured to receive, as cathode inlet gas, the flue gas generated by the flue gas generating device or a derivative thereof, and to output cathode exhaust gas and an anode portion configure to receive an anode inlet gas and to output anode exhaust gas, a fuel cell assembly voltage monitor configured to measure a voltage across the fuel cell assembly, and a controller configured to receive the measured voltage across the fuel cell assembly from the fuel cell assembly voltage monitor, determine an estimated carbon dioxide utilization of the fuel cell assembly based on the measured voltage across the fuel cell assembly, and reduce the carbon dioxide utilization of the fuel cell assembly when the determined estimated carbon dioxide utilization is above a predetermined threshold utilization.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF USING AN ENERGY STORAGE DEVICE TO ASSIST AN EJECTOR
20220416269 · 2022-12-29 ·

The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for using an energy storage device to assist a venturi or an ejector in a fuel cell or fuel stack system.

SOFC COOLING SYSTEM, FUEL CELL AND HYBRID VEHICLE
20220407091 · 2022-12-22 ·

The invention provides an SOFC cooling system. For the feature that not all components work in the full operation process of an SOFC, a DC step-down transformer DCDC, a fan and a condenser are connected in parallel, and a solenoid valve is installed in each parallel pipeline for controlling on/off of each pipeline according to a corresponding signal. Compared with the traditional SOFC cooling system, the constant-flow serial cooling system will reduce pressure losses and the power of a water pump; a solenoid valve is installed in each parallel pipeline for controlling on/off of each branch according to a corresponding signal; considering the cooling requirements of SOFC during start-up, power generation and shutdown, all components are cooled in parallel through reasonable design of each parallel pipeline, consequently to improve the cooling effect and reduce the energy consumption; the invention also discloses a fuel cell and hybrid vehicle.

SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING A STACK CURRENT REQUEST BASED ON FUEL CELL OPERATIONAL CONDITIONS

A stack current controller may be configured to determine a stack current request based on a state of charge of a battery, an error based on a difference between an actual coolant temperature and a coolant temperature setpoint, or both. A plurality of stack current levels may be implemented corresponding to different battery state-of-charge thresholds. The determined stack current magnitude may be the lowest current magnitude that provides sufficient heat to maintain a coolant temperature at the coolant temperature setpoint or within the coolant temperature threshold. The determined stack current magnitude may be the highest current magnitude that provides sufficient power while maintaining a coolant temperature at the coolant temperature setpoint or within the coolant temperature threshold.

FUEL CELL SYSTEM

To provide a fuel cell system configured to appropriately measure the AC impedance of a fuel cell. A fuel cell system wherein a controller controls ON and OFF of switches of n phases; wherein the controller monitors current values of coils; the controller operates the switches of the n phases at different phases; wherein the controller operates duty ratios of the switches of the n phases with periodically increasing and decreasing them, and the controller measures an AC impedance of a fuel cell from a current waveform of and a voltage waveform of the fuel cell; and wherein, when the controller determines that a predetermined condition 1 is met, the controller makes amplitudes which increase and decrease the duty ratios large compared to other operating conditions.

Control device for a fuel cells stack
20220399555 · 2022-12-15 ·

The invention relates to a control device (10) for a fuel cell stack (14), the control device being set up to actuate the fuel cell stack (14) using a predetermined current (I.sub.V) and to measure the resulting voltage (U) and to compare this with a reference voltage (U.sub.R). The predetermined current (I.sub.V) depends on the reference voltage (U.sub.R) by means of a sum of at least two exponential functions whose argument in each case contains the reference voltage (U.sub.R). The control device (10) is designed to ascertain the reference voltage (U.sub.R) by approximately reversing the correlation between the predetermined current and the reference voltage (U.sub.R) using an iterative approximation algorithm.

Method of recovering performance of fuel cell stack

The present disclosure relates to a method of recovering performance of a fuel cell stack in a fuel cell system of a vehicle. The method includes determining whether the fuel cell stack is in a state in which a stack performance recovery operation is possible based on information collected from the vehicle using a predetermined stack state determination criterion, determining whether the vehicle is in a state in which the stack performance recovery operation is possible based on operation information of a fuel cell system, and performing the stack performance recovery operation upon determining that the fuel cell stack is in the state in which the stack performance recovery operation is possible and that the vehicle is in the state in which the stack performance recovery operation is possible.

Fuel cell system
11508978 · 2022-11-22 · ·

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack, an oxidizing gas supply system, a cooling medium circulation pump, a stack temperature acquisition unit, and a control unit. After a first time point when a change in an acquisition temperature turns from downward to upward after the change in the acquisition temperature turns from upward to downward for the first time after the start of the warm-up operation processing, the control unit sets a decrease speed in cases of decreasing a rotational speed of the cooling medium circulation pump to a smaller value than a value set before the first time point.

METHOD OF CONTROLLING FUEL CELL

A method of controlling a fuel cell includes collecting, by a control unit, environmental information and state information of a fuel cell stack; determining, by the control unit, a motor output offset value from the collected environmental information and the collected state information of the fuel cell stack; correcting, by the control unit, a default critical output corresponding to a current vehicle operating state based on the determined motor output offset value; determining, by the control unit, the stop or the restart of the fuel cell by comparing a motor output demand determined from current vehicle operating information with the corrected critical output; and controlling, by the control unit, an operating state of the fuel cell to become a state of the determined stop or restart.