Cooling circuit for fuel cell system
AssigneeJoby Aero, Inc.
InventorsSébastien Nicolas Jérôme Vermeiren, Michael Patrick Tucker, Jeffrey Allen Lotterman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cooling system for an aircraft fuel cell system includes a coolant pump to circulate coolant through the cooling system and a radiator to reject heat to ambient air. A cooler zone is provided downstream of the radiator, comprising a plurality of parallel cooling branches. A warmer zone is provided downstream of the cooler zone, the warmer zone including a fuel cell stack. A bypass valve is arranged to provide coolant to the warmer zone from upstream of the radiator. A restrictor may be arranged to provide coolant to the warmer zone from downstream of the radiator.
Claims20
A cooling system for a vehicle, comprising:
- a coolant pump to circulate coolant through the cooling system;
- a radiator to reject heat to ambient air;
- a cooler zone downstream of the radiator and comprising a plurality of parallel cooling branches;
- a warmer zone downstream of the cooler zone, the warmer zone including a power supply unit;
- and
- an adjustable bypass valve arranged to provide an adjustable flow of coolant to the warmer zone from upstream of the radiator, bypassing the radiator and the cooler zone.
A method of operating an aircraft fuel cell cooling system, the method comprising:
- circulating coolant through the cooling system using a coolant pump;
- directing coolant from the coolant pump through a radiator to reject heat to ambient air;
- directing coolant from the radiator to a cooler zone downstream of the radiator, the cooler zone comprising a plurality of parallel cooling branches;
- directing coolant from the cooler zone to a warmer zone downstream of the cooler zone, the warmer zone including a fuel cell stack;
- and
- operating an adjustable bypass valve to provide to provide an adjustable flow of coolant to the warmer zone from upstream of the radiator, bypassing the radiator and the cooler zone.
A non-transitory machine-readable medium including instructions which, when read by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations for cooling an aircraft fuel cell using a cooling system, the operations comprising:
- circulating coolant through the cooling system using a coolant pump;
- directing coolant from the coolant pump through a radiator to reject heat to ambient air;
- directing coolant from the radiator to a cooler zone downstream of the radiator, the cooler zone comprising a plurality of parallel cooling branches;
- directing coolant from the cooler zone to a warmer zone downstream of the cooler zone, the warmer zone including a fuel cell stack;
- and
- operating an adjustable bypass valve to provide an adjustable flow of coolant to the warmer zone from upstream of the radiator, bypassing the radiator and the cooler zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.