Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090035630 | FUEL CELL SYSTEM AND SHUTDOWN METHOD OF THE SAME - At shutdown of a fuel cell system, a system-shutdown controller is configured to cause a current extraction device to extract current from a fuel cell in a state where a supply of a fuel gas through a fuel supply system is continued and a supply of an oxidant gas through an oxidant supply system is stopped, and the system-shutdown controller is configured to airtightly close fresh-air control valves after increasing pressure of the fuel gas in a fuel electrode to not less than atmospheric pressure and not less than pressure of the oxidant gas in an oxidant electrode. | 02-05-2009 |
20090169927 | FUEL CELL SYSTEM - A fuel cell system has a plurality of fuel cells stacked in one or more groups of fuel cells. Each fuel cell includes a fuel electrode supplied with fuel gas at a fuel gas supply pressure, an oxidizing electrode supplied with oxidizing gas at an oxidizing gas supply pressure, and an electrolyte membrane disposed between the fuel electrode and the oxidizing electrode. A pressure-difference control unit generates a pressure difference across the membrane such that the fuel gas supply pressure is greater than the oxidizing gas supply pressure in each fuel cell, a cell-voltage measuring device measures a cell voltage for each fuel cell or each group of fuel cells in the fuel cell stack, and a leakage determination unit determines the presence or absence of a leaking cell based on the behavior of the cell voltage of each fuel cell while the pressure difference is increased with time. | 07-02-2009 |
20110244360 | ELECTROLYTIC MEMBRANE STRUCTURE FOR FUEL CELL AND FUEL CELL - A catalyst layer | 10-06-2011 |
20110250523 | FUEL CELL - A fuel cell comprises a cathode catalyst layer and an anode catalyst layer disposed on each surface of an electrolyte membrane, an oxidant gas passage facing the cathode catalyst layer, and a fuel gas passage facing the anode catalyst layer. The cathode catalyst layer contains a metal catalyst. In a region (A), in which the differential electric potential between the cathode catalyst layer and the electrolyte membrane is larger than in another region, the metal catalyst content of the cathode catalyst layer or the specific surface area of the metal catalyst in the form of minute particles is increased, and thus a deterioration in electric power generation efficiency caused by melting of the metal catalyst due to the large differential electric potential is prevented. | 10-13-2011 |
20120282537 | FUEL CELL - A fuel cell comprises a cathode catalyst layer and an anode catalyst layer disposed on each surface of an electrolyte membrane, an oxidant gas passage facing the cathode catalyst layer, and a fuel gas passage facing the anode catalyst layer. The cathode catalyst layer contains a metal catalyst. In a region (A), in which the differential electric potential between the cathode catalyst layer and the electrolyte membrane is larger than in another region, the metal catalyst content of the cathode catalyst layer or the specific surface area of the metal catalyst in the form of minute particles is increased, and thus a deterioration in electric power generation efficiency caused by melting of the metal catalyst due to the large differential electric potential is prevented. | 11-08-2012 |
20130244127 | FUEL CELL SYSTEM - A fuel cell system is basically provided with a fuel cell, a pressure adjusting valve, a purge valve and an anode pressure controller. The fuel cell includes an anode that receives an anode gas and a cathode that receives a cathode gas to generate electric power corresponding to a load. The pressure adjusting valve is disposed in a supply path to adjust anode gas pressure to the anode. The purge valve is disposed in a discharging flow path to discharge an anode-off gas containing impurities from the fuel cell. The anode pressure controller is configured to control the pressure adjusting valve to perform a pulsation operation that pulsates the anode gas pressure of the fuel cell. The anode pressure controller decreases a median pressure of the pulsation operation as a wetness level of an electrolyte membrane of the fuel cell stack is determined to become higher. | 09-19-2013 |
20140045092 | ELECTROLYTIC MEMBRANE STRUCTURE FOR FUEL CELL AND FUEL CELL - A catalyst layer | 02-13-2014 |
20140154600 | FUEL CELL SYSTEM - A fuel cell system can be initiated in shorter time while minimizing the deterioration of a fuel cell. The fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack having a fuel electrode, an oxidizer electrode and an electrolyte membrane disposed there between, the fuel cell producing electricity by an electrochemical reaction of a fuel gas and an oxidizer gas, which are supplied to the fuel electrode and the oxidizer electrode, respectively; a fuel gas supplying device for supplying the fuel gas to the fuel cell stack; an oxidizer gas supplying device for supplying the oxidizer gas to the fuel cell stack; a current controlling device for extracting a current from the fuel cell stack; and a voltage sensor disposed in at least two of the fuel cell stacks. A controller controls the current controlling device such that a minimum voltage, which is obtained from the voltage sensor after a fuel gas is supplied to the fuel electrode without supplying the oxidizer gas to the oxidizer electrode at the time of initiating, becomes zero volts or more. Then, the oxidizer gas is supplied to the oxidizer to start producing electricity. | 06-05-2014 |
20150030966 | CATHODE ELECTRODE FOR FUEL CELL - A cathode electrode for a fuel cell, includes a conductive carrier having pores and a catalyst having a platinum alloy supported in the pores of the conductive carrier, wherein the catalyst has in a pore diameter range of 2 to 6 nm when diameters of the pores is plotted in relation with volumes of the pores a peak value of more than 1 cm | 01-29-2015 |