VEHICULAR POWER SOURCE UNIT

• US 20120326501A1
• Filed: 09/04/2012
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: UEMURA, Takuro, FUJIMAKI, Keisuke
• Granted Patent: US 8,501,361 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 307/9.1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/11 DC charging controlled by the charging station, e.g. mode 4
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/33 by cooling
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/34 by heating
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/40 for controlling a combination of batteries and fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2250/20 Fuel cells in motive systems, e.g. vehicle, ship, plane
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/0432 Temperature; Ambient temperature
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04604 Power, energy, capacity or load
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04626 of auxiliary devices, e.g. batteries, capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 8/04701 Temperature
• 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: Y02E 60/50 Fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/40 Application of hydrogen technology to transportation, e.g. using fuel cells

Abstract

Provided is a vehicular power source unit having an external electric power supply controlling element (94) configured to control the operation of a heater (16) and a recharger (22) operated by an electric power supplied from a commercial power source (70) via an external power source connector (25) according to a terminal voltage and temperature of a fuel cell (10) detected by a fuel cell state detecting element (91) and a state of a battery (20) detected by a battery state detecting element (92) when a fuel cell vehicle is halted, the supply of reactant gas to the fuel cell (10) by a fuel cell controlling element (93) is stopped and the external power source connector (25) is connected to the commercial power source (70).

Claims

1. A method of controlling operation of a vehicular power source unit, said method comprising:

detecting a state of a fuel cell using a fuel cell state detecting element;

detecting a state of an electric accumulator using an electric accumulator state detecting element;

determining that a vehicle powered by the vehicular power source unit is stopped;

determining that a supply of reactant gas to the fuel cell is stopped;

determining that an external power source is connected to the vehicular power source unit; and

controlling operation of a heater and a recharger by electric power supplied from the external power source, based upon the state of the fuel cell and the state of the electric accumulator.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a temperature and an amount of charge of the electric accumulator as the state of the electric accumulator; and

varying a magnitude of a charging current supply to the electric accumulator from the recharger according to the temperature and the amount of charge of the electric accumulator detected by the electric accumulator state detecting element.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

scavenging the reactant gas remaining in the fuel cell at a predetermined time after the supply of reactant gas to the fuel cell is stopped;

determining whether or not the scavenging has been performed on the fuel cell;

detecting a temperature of the fuel cell; and

if the scavenging has not been performed on the fuel cell, prohibiting heating of the fuel cell and charging of the electric accumulator by the recharger, and, if the scavenging action has been performed on the fuel cell, heating the fuel cell by the heater and charging the electric accumulator by the recharger;

determining if the temperature of the fuel cell is equal to or lower than a pre-defined temperature when the vehicle is stopped, and stopping the supply of reactant gas to the fuel cell by the fuel controlling element.

4. A method according to claim 3, further comprising:

detecting a temperature and an amount of charge of the electric accumulator as the state of the electric accumulator; and

varying a magnitude of a charging current supply to the electric accumulator from the recharger according to the temperature and the amount of charge of the electric accumulator.