Hydrogen fuel cell cooling
AssigneeCaterpillar Inc.
InventorsUmakanth Sakaray, Zachary Kroehler, Pavan Kumar Reddy Kudumula
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for vaporizing hydrogen for providing hydrogen in gaseous form to a plurality of hydrogen fuel cells includes: a vaporizer; a radiator configured to cool a cooling fluid in a coolant system of the plurality of hydrogen fuel cells; a spray supply system comprising: a tank; a pump configured to pump water from the tank; a nozzle system; and a condensate tray configured to collect condensate and return the condensate to the tank. The system is configured to activate the pump to pump the condensate collected in the tank to cool the radiator based on a temperature of the cooling fluid.
Claims20
A system for vaporizing hydrogen for providing hydrogen in gaseous form to a plurality of hydrogen fuel cells comprising:
- a vaporizer;
- a radiator configured to cool a cooling fluid in a coolant system of the plurality of hydrogen fuel cells;
- a spray supply system comprising:
- a tank;
- a pump configured to pump water from the tank;
- a nozzle system;
- and
- a condensate tray configured to collect condensate and return the condensate to the tank, wherein
- the system is configured to activate the pump to pump the condensate collected in the tank to cool the radiator based on a temperature of the cooling fluid.
A system for cooling of a radiator of a hydrogen fuel cell stack comprising:
- a vaporizer;
- a radiator configured to cool a cooling fluid in a coolant system of the hydrogen fuel cell stack;
- a spray supply system comprising:
- a tank;
- a pump configured to pump water from the tank;
- a nozzle system;
- and
- a condensate tray configured to collect condensate and return the condensate to the tank;
- and
- a controller, the controller comprising a processor and a memory storing one or more processor readable instructions that cause the system to:
- activate the pump to spray the condensate collected in the tank to cool the radiator based on a temperature of the cooling fluid.
A method of cooling of a fuel cell stack radiator comprising:
- measuring an ambient temperature and determining a temperature difference between the ambient temperature and a stored temperature value;
- measuring a temperature of a cooling fluid at an outlet of a radiator of a fuel cell stack;
- activating a pump to provide condensate spray through a nozzle system based on the measured temperature being above a threshold value, wherein
- the pump is configured to pump liquid from a tank that has been collected as condensate from a vaporizer configured to evaporate liquid hydrogen to provide hydrogen gas to the fuel cell stack.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.