US 8,541,120 B2Granted

Fuel cell system and operation method for fuel cell system

AssigneeToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorKenichi Hamada

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Abstract

A fuel cell system (100) includes: a circulation pump (50) provided on a fuel gas circulation channel (27) so as to circulate a fuel gas; a pump temperature detection portion (420) that detects a temperature of the circulation pump (50); a warmup portion that warms up the circulation pump; a pump control portion (410) that drives the circulation pump; and a breakdown determination portion (450) that determines whether the circulation pump has broken. At the start of the fuel cell system, if the pump temperature detected by the pump temperature detection portion (420) is below the melting point of water, the warmup portion warms the circulation pump, and the pump control portion (410) drives the circulation pump (50). If the pump temperature is higher than or equal to the melting point of water and the rotation speed of the circulation pump (50) is less than a predetermined speed, the breakdown determination portion (450) determines that the circulation pump (50) has broken.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A fuel cell system comprising:

a fuel cell;
a fuel gas supply portion;
a fuel gas supply channel that supplies a fuel gas from the fuel gas supply portion to the fuel cell;
a fuel gas circulation channel that is connected to the fuel cell and to the fuel gas supply channel and that circulates the fuel gas discharged from the fuel cell by returning the fuel gas to the fuel gas supply channel for reuse;
a circulation pump provided on the fuel gas circulation channel so as to circulate the fuel gas;
a temperature detection portion programmed to detect a temperature of the fuel cell system;
a pump control portion programmed to drive the circulation pump;
and
a breakdown determination portion programmed to determine whether the circulation pump has a breakdown,
wherein the breakdown determination portion is programmed to determine that the circulation pump has a breakdown if the temperature of the fuel cell system detected by the temperature detection portion is higher than or equal to a melting point of water and a rotation speed of the circulation pump driven by the pump control portion is less than a predetermined rotation speed.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/279,731Filed 16 Mar 2007
Priority: JP 2006-07881722 Mar 2006
Published: US 2009/0023020 A122 Jan 2009
Granted: 24 Sep 2013
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

H01M 8/04097
Of gaseous reactants: with recycling of the reactants
H01M 8/04225
During start-up or shut-down; Depolarisation or activation, e.g. purging; Means for short-circuiting defective fuel cells: during start-up
H01M 8/04231
During start-up or shut-down; Depolarisation or activation, e.g. purging; Means for short-circuiting defective fuel cells: purging of the reactants
H01M 8/04253
During start-up or shut-down; Depolarisation or activation, e.g. purging; Means for short-circuiting defective fuel cells: means for solving…

Family

US 2009/0023020 A1Pre-grant publication · published 22 Jan 2009
US 8,541,120 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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