FUEL CELL SYSTEM

• US 20110207011A1
• Filed: 05/05/2011
• Published: 08/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: HORIO, Kimihide, MANABE, Kota
• Granted Patent: US 8,343,675 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 429/444
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/0046 relating to electric energy storage systems, e.g. batteries or capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/0053 relating to fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/30 for monitoring or controlling fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/31 for starting of fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/33 by cooling
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/34 by heating
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 16/006 of fuel cells with rechargeable batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2250/20 Fuel cells in motive systems, e.g. vehicle, ship, plane
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 4/86 Inert electrodes with catalytic activity, e.g. for fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04 Auxiliary arrangements, e.g. for control of pressure or for circulation of fluids
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04225 during start-up
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04228 during shut-down
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04302 applied during start-up
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04559 of fuel cell stacks
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04589 of fuel cell stacks
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04753 of fuel cell reactants
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04888 of auxiliary devices, e.g. batteries, capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/0494 of fuel cell stacks
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/241 with solid or matrix-supported electrolytes
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/2457 with both reactants being gaseous or vaporised
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/50 : Fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/40 : Application of hydrogen technology to transportation, e.g. using fuel cells

Abstract

There is disclosed a fuel cell system capable of stably operating auxiliary devices driven at a high voltage and the like, even in a case where a poisoned electrode catalyst is recovered or a fuel cell is warmed up. On detecting that the electrode catalyst is poisoned, a controller derives a target operation point which is sufficient for recovering an activity of the poisoned electrode catalyst. Then, shift of the operation point from a usual operation point to a low-efficiency operation point is realized so that an output power is held to be constant.

Claims

1. A fuel cell system comprising:

a fuel cell which generates a power by use of a fuel gas and an oxidizing gas;

an inhibition device for inhibiting supply of the oxidizing gas in a case where predetermined conditions are satisfied;

a first determination device for determining a target power of the fuel cell at a time when the supply of the oxidizing gas is inhibited;

a second determination device for determining a target current based on the target power and an actually measured voltage of the fuel cell; and

a third determination device for feeding back a deviation between the target current and an actually measured current of the fuel cell to a change amount of the actually measured voltage of the fuel cell to determine a target voltage value.

2. The fuel cell system according to claim 1, wherein the inhibition device stops the supply of the oxidizing gas in a case where an output voltage of the fuel cell is lowered from the vicinity of an opened circuit voltage to a voltage at a low-efficiency operation point, and

the first determination device determines the target power of the fuel cell at a time when the supply of the oxidizing gas is stopped.