Control of fuel cell cooling system in a vehicle
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsMatthew RILEY, Craig Michael MATHIE, William Frederick Sanderson, JR.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fuel cell system in a vehicle includes a fuel cell stack and a cooling system for cooling the fuel cell stack. The cooling system has a radiator and at least one pump configured to supply coolant to the fuel cell stack. A controller operates the cooling system to actively cool the fuel cell stack while the vehicle is shut down in response to conditions indicating that the next time the vehicle will be started, it will be a cold start. The controller can then, subsequent to initiating the cooling, purge the fuel cell stack.
Claims20
A vehicle comprising:
- a fuel cell stack;
- a cooling system having a radiator and at least one pump configured to supply coolant to the fuel cell stack;
- and
- at least one controller programmed to operate the cooling system to actively cool the fuel cell stack while the vehicle is shut down in response to an anticipated upcoming cold start.
A vehicle comprising:
- a fuel cell stack;
- a pump configured to deliver coolant to the fuel cell stack;
- means for shutting down and starting the vehicle;
- and
- a controller programmed to, in response to the vehicle being shut down and a frozen start anticipated for a next vehicle startup, operate the pump to actively cool the fuel cell stack.
A method of controlling a fuel cell cooling system in a vehicle, comprising:
- shutting down the vehicle;
- and
- while the vehicle is shut down, operating a fuel cell coolant pump in response to a temperature of a fuel cell coolant being less than a threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.