The present disclosure relates to a method and system for determining, applying, and/or managing the state-of-health of fuel cell to control the lifespan of the fuel cell in a vehicle and/or powertrain.

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.

A fuel cell system includes fuel cell, an electrical storage device that stores electric power generated by the fuel cell, and a control device that controls generation of power by the fuel cell, that acquires a charging rate of the electrical storage device, when the electric power in the electrical storage device is supplied to external devices, the control device performs first control which increases a charging rate of the electrical storage device and second control which restricts a power generation amount of the fuel cell to be smaller than in the first control and decreases a charging rate of the electrical storage device, and when a temperature detected by the temperature sensor is lower than a predetermined temperature, a power generation amount per hour of the fuel cell in the first control is reduced in comparison when the detected temperature is equal to or greater than the predetermined temperature.

The control device is provided with a power generation part configured to be able to selectively perform normal power generation and low efficiency power generation in which the power generation loss is greater compared with normal power generation when there is a request for warmup of the fuel cell. The power generation part temporarily stops the low efficiency power generation and performs normal power generation when during performance of the low efficiency power generation the target generated electric power of the fuel cell becomes equal to or greater than a predetermined first switching electric power.

A battery pack including a first subset of battery cells and a second subset of battery cells, set of switches, a DC output port and an AC output port. The battery pack may provide both a DC output signal at the DC output port and an AC output signal at the AC output port by selectively activating the switches of the set of switches. The battery pack may couple the first subset of battery cells and the second subset of battery cells in a parallel configuration or a series configuration.

A system for reducing overdraw of power in a vehicle includes a power source having a battery and a fuel cell circuit. The system further includes an ECU that transmits a power limit signal to a vehicle controller, the power limit signal corresponding to an instantaneous maximum amount of power of the power source. The ECU also determines a battery allowed power corresponding to an amount of power available to be drawn from the battery to cause the SOC of the battery to remain above a lower SOC threshold. The ECU also determines a current battery power draw from the battery corresponding to an instantaneous amount of power being drawn from the battery. The ECU is designed to reduce the instantaneous maximum amount of power in the power limit signal when the current battery power draw is greater than the battery allowed power, reducing the current battery power draw.

A fuel cell module is configured or operated, or both, such that after a shut down procedure a fuel cell stack is discharged and has its cathode electrodes at least partially blanketed with nitrogen during at least some periods of time. If the fuel cell module is restarted in this condition, electrochemical reactions are limited and do not quickly re-charge the fuel cell stack. To decrease start up time, air is moved into the cathode electrodes before the stack is re-charged. The air may be provided by a pump, fan or blower driven by a battery or by the flow or pressure of stored hydrogen. For example, an additional fan or an operating blower may be driven by a battery until the fuel cell stack is able to supply sufficient current to drive the operating blower for normal operation.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a power management system (e.g., a power management for a fuel cell or a fuel cell system) includes a fuel cell to generate an electrical power output; a metastable hydrogen carrier to supply hydrogen to the fuel cell; a heater coupled with the metastable hydrogen carrier; and a controller coupled to the heater to control a rate of hydrogen release from the metastable hydrogen carrier. A method of operating a fuel cell system includes controlling an electrical power input to a heater utilizing a controller; heating a metastable hydrogen carrier to a temperature by the heater and to generate hydrogen to feed a fuel cell. The heater is coupled to the controller, and the controller controls the electrical power input to the heater according to a relationship between a rate of hydrogen release and the temperature and a composition of the metastable hydrogen carrier.

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack including fuel and air electrodes, a fuel gas supply module configured to supply hydrogen and oxygen, as fuel gases, to the fuel cell stack, a fuel gas supply line including channels through which the fuel gases are supplied to the fuel cell stack, a humidification module disposed in the fuel gas supply line and configured to supply moisture to the fuel gases, and a controller configured to control the fuel gas supply line such that the fuel gases bypass the humidification module and are directly supplied to the fuel cell stack when temperature of the fuel cell stack is determined low at an initial stage of operation of the fuel cell stack, and the fuel gases pass through the humidification module and are supplied to the fuel cell stack when the temperature reaches a normal temperature.

A battery and a load device are connected to a fuel cell stack. Electric power is supplied from the battery to fuel cell auxiliary equipment. A controller of a fuel cell system has stored therein a desired output of the fuel cell stack. The controller predicts auxiliary equipment power consumption, which is the amount of electric power that is consumed by the fuel cell auxiliary equipment for operation of the fuel cell stack, and determines estimated input and output power of the battery. The controller determines a requested output, which is an output requested for the fuel cell stack, based on the predicted auxiliary equipment power consumption and the estimated input and output power. The controller determines an operating point of the fuel cell stack based on the desired output. The load device controls its operation so that the difference between the requested output and the desired output becomes zero.