System and method for cooling a fuel cell assembly
AssigneeLiebherr-Aerospace Toulouse SAS
InventorsKarin Prince, David Lavergne
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention relates to a system for cooling a fuel cell assembly (10) of a transport vehicle, such as an aircraft, comprising: a cooling fluid circulation loop (20); a cooling heat exchanger (24) configured to be able to provide heat exchanges between said loop (20) and a channel (25) for circulating cooling air (26); a variable-speed pump (21) for supplying said cooling loop with cooling fluid as a function of a measurement representative of the cooling need of said fuel cell assembly; for each fuel cell (10a, 10b, 10c) of said cell assembly, a 3-way valve (12a, 12b, 12c) for regulating the flow rate of cooling fluid supplying this cell as a function of a measurement representative of the cooling need of this cell.
Claims9
A system for cooling a fuel cell assembly of a transport vehicle, comprising:
- a cooling fluid circulation loop, referred to as cooling loop,
- a cooling heat exchanger configured to be able to provide heat exchanges between said cooling loop and a channel for circulating cooling air drawn in from outside the transport vehicle,
- a variable-speed pump for supplying said cooling loop with cooling fluid as a function of a measurement representative of the cooling need of said fuel cell assembly,
- for each corresponding one of the fuel cells of said fuel cell assembly, a 3-way valve for regulating the flow rate of cooling fluid supplying this the corresponding one of the fuel cells as a function of a measurement representative of the cooling need of the corresponding one of the fuel cells.
A method for cooling a fuel cell assembly of a transport vehicle, the fuel cell assembly comprising a plurality of fuel cells the method comprising:
- circulating a cooling fluid in a loop, referred to as cooling loop,
- providing—heat exchanges between said cooling fluid of said cooling loop and air drawn in from outside the transport vehicle, wherein said method further comprises:
- regulating said flow rate of cooling fluid circulating in said cooling loop as a function of a measurement representative of the cooling need of said fuel cell assembly,
- regulating the flow rate of cooling fluid supplying each fuel cell of the fuel cell assembly from said cooling loop as a function of a measurement representative of the cooling need of this fuel cell.
A transport vehicle comprising a fuel cell assembly comprising a plurality of fuel cells, wherein the vehicle further comprises a system for cooling said fuel cell assembly comprising:
- a cooling fluid circulation loop, referred to as cooling loop,
- a cooling heat exchanger configured to be able to provide heat exchanges between said cooling loop and a channel for circulating cooling air drawn in from outside the transport vehicle,
- a variable-speed pump for supplying said cooling loop with cooling fluid as a function of a measurement representative of the cooling need of said fuel cell assembly,
- for each corresponding one of the fuel cells of said cell assembly, a 3-way valve for regulating the flow rate of cooling fluid supplying this the corresponding one of the fuel cells as a function of a measurement representative of the cooling need of the corresponding one of the fuel cells.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.