METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING FUEL SUPPLYING QUANTITY IN FUEL CELL SYSTEM

• Main Authors: MOON, GO YOUNG, LEE, SANG HYUN, LEE, CHANG SONG, JEONG, JA HOON, LEE, WON HO, NOH, TAE GEUN
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 18.06.2008
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; ELECTRICITY; PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSIONOF CHEMICAL INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY

An apparatus for controlling the amount of fuel feed in a fuel cell is provided to stabilize the amount of fuel feed by considering fuel consumption caused by electrochemical reactions and fuel consumption caused by crossover. An apparatus for controlling the amount of concentrated fuel in a fuel cell system, in which diluted fuel drawn from a diluted fuel storage tank(FT) is mixed with concentrated fuel drawn from a fuel cartridge(CT) and supplied to a fuel cell stack, electric energy is generated to a degree corresponding to the feed drawn from the fuel cartridge, and water and unreacted fuel is returned to the diluted fuel storage tank, comprises: a mixer for mixing the diluted fuel with the concentrated fuel; a fuel concentration sensor(S) for sensing the concentration of the unreacted fuel at the anode outlet of the stack; a current gauge sensor(G) for sensing the density(I) of the current generated from the stack; a fuel dosing pump(DS) for drawing the concentrated fuel from the fuel cartridge and supplying the fuel to the mixer; a flow controller(C) for controlling the fuel feed flow of the fuel dosing pump; and a microcontroller that receives data about the unreacted fuel concentration and the current density, calculates fuel crossover by using a dimension-free crossover model equation derived from introducing CSTR postulation and complete hydrogen oxidation postulation, calculates the feed flow of concentrated fuel corresponding to the fuel consumption conformed to the current density plus the fuel consumption conformed to crossover, and controls the flow controller to adjust the fuel feed flow provided by the fuel dosing pump to the calculated fuel feed flow.