Fuel feeder, electric equipment and fuel feed system thereof

• US 20070231638A1
• Filed: 02/06/2007
• Published: 10/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Bitoh, Hiroyasu
• Granted Patent: US 7,591,288 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 141/59
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04201 Reactant storage and supply, e.g. means for feeding, pipes
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04313 characterised by the detection or assessment of variables; characterised by the detection or assessment of failure or abnormal function
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04462 of anode exhausts
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04753 of fuel cell reactants
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04761 of fuel cell exhausts
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04776 at auxiliary devices, e.g. reformer, compressor, burner
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04798 of fuel cell reactants
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04805 of fuel cell exhausts
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04992 characterised by the implementation of mathematical or computational algorithms, e.g. feedback control loops, fuzzy logic, neural networks or artificial intelligence
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/1009 with one of the reactants being liquid, solid or liquid-charged H01M8/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/50 Fuel cells

Abstract

A fuel feeder includes a fuel reserve body reserving a fuel, a fuel feed unit feeding the fuel in the fuel reserve body to electric equipment, and a control unit controlling the fuel feed unit, wherein the control unit obtains equipment information from by the electric equipment and operates the fuel feed unit to feed the fuel to the electric equipment after the control unit has performed authentication of the electric equipment.

Claims

1. A fuel feeder comprising:

a fuel reserve body to reserve a fuel;

a fuel feed unit to feed the fuel in the fuel reserve body to electric equipment; and

a control unit to control the fuel feed unit,

wherein the control unit obtains equipment information from the electric equipment and operates the fuel feed unit to feed the fuel to the electric equipment after the control unit has performed authentication of the electric equipment.

2. The fuel feeder according to claim 1, further comprising:

a content meter to examine ingredients of the fuel; and

a fuel extraction unit to extract the fuel remaining in the electric equipment,

wherein the fuel extraction unit extracts a part of the fuel remaining in the electric equipment,

the content meter examines the ingredients of the extracted fuel, and

when an examination result of the content meter is not proper, the control unit operates the fuel extraction unit to continue extracting the fuel from the electric equipment, and then the control unit operates the fuel feed unit to feed the fuel after the fuel has extracted from the electric equipment.

3. The fuel feeder according to claim 2, wherein the control unit operates the fuel extraction unit not to extract the fuel and operates the fuel feed unit to feed the fuel without extracting the fuel, when the examination result is proper.

4. The fuel feeder according to claim 2, wherein the content meter is a concentration meter to measure a concentration of the fuel.

5. The fuel feeder according to claim 2, further comprising:

a waste fuel reserve body to waste a fuel extracted by the fuel extraction unit.

6. The fuel feeder according to claim 1,

wherein a storage unit of the electric equipment stores a fuel feed history of times when the fuel has been fed,

the control unit requests the electric equipment to transmit the fuel feed history and receives the fuel feed history from the electric equipment, and

when the control unit judges that there is a fuel before a predetermined period based on the received fuel feed history, the control unit operates the fuel extraction unit to extract the fuel from the electric equipment, and then the control unit operates the fuel feed unit to feed the fuel after the fuel has extracted from the electric equipment.

7. The fuel feeder according to claim 5, wherein when the control unit judges that there is no fuel before the predetermined period based on the received fuel feed history, the control unit operates the fuel extraction unit not to extract the fuel and operates the fuel feed unit to feed the fuel.

8. The fuel feeder according to claim 1,

wherein a storage unit of the electric equipment stores a remaining fuel quantity and a capacity of the fuel reserve body, and

the fuel feeder further comprises an input unit to input a replenishment quantity of the fuel,

the control unit requests the electric equipment to transmit the remaining fuel quantity and the capacity of the fuel reserve body and receives the remaining quantity and the capacity from the electric equipment,

the control unit obtains a difference by subtracting the received remaining fuel quantity from the received capacity and compares the obtained difference with the replenishment quantity inputted on the input unit, and

the control unit operates the fuel feed unit to feed the fuel when the obtained difference is larger than the replenishment quantity inputted on the input unit as a result of the comparison.

9. The fuel feeder according to claim 1, wherein the control unit commands the electric equipment to update a remaining fuel quantity when the fuel feed unit has finished feeding the fuel.

10. The fuel feeder according to claim 1, further comprising a water feed unit to feed water to the electric equipment.

11. An electric equipment comprising:

a fuel reserve body to reserve a fuel;

a valve to allow to feed a fuel to the fuel reserve body;

a storage unit to store equipment information;

a communication unit to transfer the equipment information to a fuel feeder; and

a control unit to control the storage unit and the communication unit,

wherein the communication unit transmits the equipment information read out from the storage unit by the control unit to the fuel feeder after an authentication has been performed between the electric equipment and the fuel feeder,

the communication unit receives a command based on the equipment information from the fuel feeder, and

the control unit opens the valve.

12. The electric equipment according to claim 11,

wherein the control unit obtains the remaining fuel quantity in the fuel reserve body and stores the remaining fuel quantity in the storage unit at the time of operating, and

the control unit adds an aggregate fed quantity received from the fuel feeder at the time of feeding fuel by the fuel feeder to the remaining fuel quantity stored in the storage unit, so as to update the remaining fuel quantity stored in the storage unit to a sum of the addition.

13. The electric equipment according to claim 12, further comprising:

a pump to send a fuel in the fuel reserve body,

wherein the control unit allows the pump not to operate when the remaining fuel quantity stored in the storage unit becomes zero.

14. The electric equipment according to claim 12, wherein when a fuel is fed from the fuel feeder so as to make the fuel reserve body full-tank, if the aggregate fed quantity obtained from the fuel feeder is not within the predetermined error range from the difference obtained by subtracting the remaining fuel quantity stored in the storage unit from the capacity of the fuel reserve body, the control unit stores the remaining fuel quantity stored in the storage unit as zero according to a command by the fuel feeder.

15. The electric equipment according to claim 12, wherein when a fuel is fed from the fuel feeder so as to make the fuel reserve body full-tank, if the aggregate fed quantity obtained from the fuel feeder is not within the predetermined error range from the difference obtained by subtracting the remaining fuel quantity stored in the storage unit from the capacity of the fuel reserve body, the control unit stores the aggregate fed quantity transmitted from the fuel feeder as the remaining fuel quantity in the storage unit.

16. The electric equipment according to claim 12, wherein when a fuel is fed from the fuel feeder so as to make the fuel reserve body full-tank, if the aggregate fed quantity obtained from the fuel feeder is within the predetermined error range from the difference obtained by subtracting the remaining fuel quantity stored in the storage unit from the capacity of the fuel reserve body, the control unit stores the remaining fuel quantity as a full-tank in order not to accumulate errors in the remaining fuel quantity.

17. The electric equipment according to claim 11, wherein the equipment information includes a fuel feed history.

18. A fuel feed system comprising an electric equipment and a fuel feeder,

wherein the electric equipment includes a storage unit storing an equipment information,

the fuel feeder includes a fuel reserve body to reserve a fuel, a fuel feed unit to feed a fuel in the fuel reserve body to the electric equipment, and a control unit to control the fuel feed unit,

the control unit obtains the equipment information stored in the storage unit and operates the fuel feed unit to feed a fuel after the control unit authenticates the electric equipment.

19. The fuel feed system according to claim 18,

wherein the fuel feeder comprises a first communication unit, and

the electric equipment comprises a second communication unit to communicate with the first communication unit.

20. The fuel feed system according to claim 19,

wherein the first communication unit communicates with the second communication unit with each other by a wireless communication or an infrared communication.