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US 12,738,515 B2Granted
Fuel cell system and method for stopping power generation in fuel cell system
AssigneeHonda Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorsTakuma Sonobe, Ryoji Sakai, Sho Akabori, Takuto Nakagawa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fuel cell system performs a first control of stopping power generation of a fuel cell stack by closing a supply-side stop valve during power generation of the fuel cell stack, and a second control of driving an air pump by using surplus power generated in a moving body to thereby discard the surplus power. If a closed state of the supply-side stop valve is detected when the first control and the second control start to be executed, the air pump is driven in a predetermined state.
Claims8
A fuel cell system provided in a moving body, the fuel cell system comprising:
- a fuel cell stack;
- a cathode supply path through which an oxygen-containing gas is supplied to the fuel cell stack;
- an air pump configured to supply the oxygen-containing gas to the cathode supply path;
- a stop valve provided between the air pump and the fuel cell stack in the cathode supply path;
- a discharge path through which the oxygen-containing gas discharged from the fuel cell stack is discharged to an outside of the fuel cell system;
- a cathode bypass passage through which the oxygen-containing gas supplied to the fuel cell stack flows from an upstream side of the stop valve to the discharge;
- a bypass valve provided in the cathode bypass passage between the cathode supply path and the discharge path;
- and
- one or more processors that execute computer-executable instructions stored in a memory, wherein the one or more processors execute the computer-executable instructions to cause the fuel cell system to:
- execute a first control of stopping power generation of the fuel cell stack by closing the stop valve during power generation of the fuel cell stack and opening the bypass valve, and
- execute a second control, subsequent to the first control step, of discarding surplus electric power generated in the fuel cell stack by driving the air pump by the surplus electric power,
- wherein, the execution of the first control includes:
- detecting that a plurality of conditions are true, the plurality of conditions including:
- a signal indicating a fuel cell power command value of 0 [kW] is received,
- a signal requesting stopping of power generation of the fuel cell stack is received, and
- a closed state of the stop valve is detected during execution of the first control, and
- starting execution of the second control in order to drive the air pump in a predetermined state upon the detection that the plurality of conditions are true, and
- the execution of the second control includes:
- increasing a power command value of the air pump to a value at which the surplus electric power generated in the fuel cell stack is allowed to be discarded, and
- subsequent to the increasing of the power command value of the air pump, reducing a voltage command value of the fuel cell stack to a predetermined value.
17 more elements
A method for stopping power generation of a fuel cell system provided in a moving body, wherein
- the fuel cell system includes:
- a fuel cell stack;
- a cathode supply path through which an oxygen-containing gas is supplied to the fuel cell stack;
- an air pump configured to supply the oxygen-containing gas to the cathode supply path;
- a discharge path through which the oxygen-containing gas discharged from the fuel cell stack is discharged to an outside of the fuel cell system;
- a cathode bypass passage through which the oxygen-containing gas supplied to the fuel cell stack flows from an upstream side of the stop valve to the discharge;
- a bypass valve provided in the cathode bypass passage between the cathode supply path and the discharge path;
- and
- a stop valve provided between the air pump and the fuel cell stack in the cathode supply path,
- the method comprising:
- causing the stop valve to be closed and causing the bypass valve to be opened during power generation of the fuel cell stack;
- detecting that a plurality of conditions are true, the plurality of conditions including:
- a signal indicating a fuel cell power command value of 0 [kW] is received,
- a signal requesting stopping of power generation of the fuel cell stack is received, and
- a closed state of the stop valve is detected after the stop valve is closed;
- and
- upon the detection that the plurality of conditions are true, driving the air pump in a predetermined state by surplus electric power generated in the fuel cell stack
- in the driving the air pump in the predetermined state:
- increasing a power command value of the air pump to a value at which the surplus electric power generated in the fuel cell stack is allowed to be discarded, and
- subsequent to the increasing of the power command value of the air pump, reducing a voltage command value of the fuel cell stack to a predetermined value.
17 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.