Fuel Cell Cooling Pump Purification for Reliable Startup
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Solution Overview
Problem
In fuel cell systems, conductive ions accumulate in the cooling medium when the system is stopped, leading to increased conductivity and potential issues during restart, such as unpleasant driving noise and inefficient energy consumption.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a cooling medium circulation pump that supplies the cooling medium to an impurity removal mechanism to reduce conductivity, followed by the activation of oxidant and fuel gas supply devices once the conductivity reaches a predetermined value, ensuring reliable startup conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If the pump is stopped when the fuel cell system is stopped, then energy consumption is reduced, but conductive ions accumulate in the cooling medium causing increased conductivity
Solution Approach 1:
The pump is operated in advance during a predetermined period after the fuel cell system stops to remove conductive ions from the cooling medium before the system fully shuts down. This preliminary action ensures that when the system restarts, the cooling medium has already been purified, preventing noise and enabling reliable startup without continuous pump operation.
2Reliability
If the pump operates continuously to remove conductive ions, then cooling medium purity is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuous operation, the pump operates periodically - specifically during a predetermined time period after system shutdown. This periodic operation maintains cooling medium purity by removing conductive ions at strategic intervals while significantly reducing overall energy consumption compared to continuous operation.
3Loss of time
If the fuel cell is activated immediately after system stop, then startup time is reduced, but unpleasant noise occurs due to high conductivity
Solution Approach 1:
The pump performs preliminary purification of the cooling medium during the predetermined period after system stop, removing conductive ions before fuel cell activation. This preliminary action eliminates the harmful noise effect during startup while maintaining a short overall startup time by preparing the cooling medium in advance.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach effectively reduces insulation resistance, prevents unpleasant noise, and optimizes energy consumption by only operating the cooling medium pump during startup, allowing for efficient and cost-effective fuel cell system activation.
Implementation Method 1
an ion removal device (impurity removal device) which has a function of removing conductive ions such as metal ions which are eluted to the cooling medium
Implementation Method 2
a fuel cell which includes a membrane electrode assembly in which an anode-side electrode and a cathode-side electrode are respectively disposed on both sides of a solid polymer electrolyte membrane
Data Source
AI summary
A method of starting a fuel cell system for a vehicle includes determining whether or not an activation signal of a fuel cell provided in the fuel cell system has been inputted, operating, if it is determined that the activation signal has been inputted, a cooling medium circulation pump to supply a cooling medium to an impurity removal mechanism for reducing a conductivity of the cooling medium, and driving an oxidant gas supply device and a fuel gas supply device in the fuel cell system to start activation of the fuel cell if it is determined that the conductivity of the cooling medium is less than or equal to a predetermined value.