Fuel cell/battery hybrid power system for vehicle
First Claim
1. A hybrid type power source for an electric vehicle, comprising:
- a rechargeable battery for supplying electric power to drive an electric motor;
a fuel cell for generating electric power to charge said battery;
battery residual charge detection means for detecting the residual charge contained in said battery; and
fuel cell output control means for defining a plurality of different ranges of residual battery charge, for determining which one range of the plurality of ranges encompasses the detected residual charge and for commanding the fuel cell to charge the battery at one of a plurality of different power levels corresponding, respectively, to the plurality of different ranges of residual battery charge, each of said power levels serving to charge the battery, which one power level remains constant so long as the detected residual charge remains within said one range.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A hybrid type power source control system controls the output of a fuel cell, with disregard of the operation of the vehicle accelerator pedal, responsive to the detected amount of residual charge of the battery, which amount fluctuates as the vehicle travels. For example, the output of the fuel cell system 3 might be 3 kW when the residual charge is from 70% to 90%, 5 kW when the residual charge is from 70% to 60% and 10 kW when the residual charge is below 60%. Consequently, the fuel cell system 3 can generate power with an efficiency of from 30% to 33% and can charge the battery 1 effectively. Because the output of the fuel cell is fixed for each of the rather broad ranges of residual battery charge, thermal fatigue of the fuel cell is prevented because of little output fluctuation. When the electric motor is continuously operated, the fuel cell continuously charges the battery to maintain a fully charged stated, optionally with some allowance for fluctuation thereof. When a fixed charge time is manually input, the output of the fuel cell is selected to fully charge (90%) the battery during the time selected.
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Citations
9 Claims
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1. A hybrid type power source for an electric vehicle, comprising:
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a rechargeable battery for supplying electric power to drive an electric motor; a fuel cell for generating electric power to charge said battery; battery residual charge detection means for detecting the residual charge contained in said battery; and fuel cell output control means for defining a plurality of different ranges of residual battery charge, for determining which one range of the plurality of ranges encompasses the detected residual charge and for commanding the fuel cell to charge the battery at one of a plurality of different power levels corresponding, respectively, to the plurality of different ranges of residual battery charge, each of said power levels serving to charge the battery, which one power level remains constant so long as the detected residual charge remains within said one range. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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Specification