Title of Invention

"A FUEL CELL VEHICLE DRIVEN BY ELECTRICAL POWER"

Abstract

A fuel cell vehicle driven by electrical power obtained by supplying fuel gas and reactant gas to a fuel cell stack, characterized in that a fuel cylinder holding the fuel gas, a fuel cylinder cover, covering the fuel cylinder and forming a ventilation duct leading from the front of the vehicle to the rear of the vehicle between the fuel cylinder, and an electrical circuit arranged behind the fuel cylinder so as to face a rear opening section of the ventilation duct are provided.

Full Text

The Present invention relates to a fuel cell vehicle driver by electrical power. The present invention relates to a fuel cell vehicle driven with a furl cell as a drive energy source, and particularly to a furl cell vehicle structured capable of efficiently cooling an electrical circuit. In the related art, a fuel cell type two-wheeled vehicle that is driven by supplying electrical power generated by a fuel cell to a motor and driving a rear wheel using this motor is known. With a fuel cell system, electricity is generated by an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen, as a fuel gas, and oxygen, as a reactant gas, but in this electrochemical reaction there is an appropriate reaction temperature, and at a low temperature or high temperature reaction efficiency is lowered and in particular, if the temperature is too high the lifespan of the fuel cell is shortened. Therefore, with an electrical generation system using fuel cells, it is necessary to have a cooling unit in order to remove heat generated during fuel cell electricity generation to the outside of the fuel cell, and keep the operating temperature of the fuel cell within a specified temperature range. Generally, fuel cell systems have a laminated structure of a plurality of cells, with a cooling plate interposed between each cell. A cooling gas passage is formed in the cooling plates, and a stack is cooled by having cooling gas flow in this cooling passage. Japanese patent laid-open No. Hei 2001-351652 discloses a cooling structure for cooling a fuel cell stack by introducing external air using a cooling fan, and discharging external air that has cooled the fuel stack to the rear after it has passed around the fuel cylinder. [Problems to be solved by the Invention] In order to design fuel cells according to the voltage rating of a drive motor, it is necessary to have a down converter in order to use the fuel cells as auxiliary electrical power. In the down converter it is preferable to subject power transistors to switching control, and to provide a cooling unit as heat generated by the power transistors is high. However, with the above described related art technology, it is necessary to provide a cooling mechanism for the down converter separately from a mechanism for cooling the fuel cell stack and the fuel cylinder. For this reason, not only does this contribute towards an increase in the number of components, increase in vehicle weight and rise in cost, but since it is necessary to arrange a plurality of cooling mechanisms in space that is limited in a two wheeled vehicle there is a technological problem that freedom of design is restricted. The object of the present invention is to solve the above-described technical problems in the related art, and to provide a fuel cell vehicle capable of efficiently cooling an electrical circuit such as a down converter. [Means of Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above described object, the present invention is directed to a fuel cell vehicle, provided with a fuel cylinder and a fuel cell stack, and driven by electrical power obtained by causing an electrochemical reaction between fuel gas and reactant gas, characterized by the following points. (1). Including a fuel cylinder for holding fuel gas, a fuel cylinder cover, covering the fuel cylinder and forming a ventilation duct leading from the front of the vehicle to the rear of the vehicle between the fuel cylinder, and an electrical circuit arranged behind the fuel cylinder so as to face a rear opening section of the ventilation duct. (2). Including an electrical circuit cover for covering the electrical circuit. (3). Having the electrical circuit inclined with a front surface sloping upwards to the rear, and a rear side open section of the ventilation duct so as to face a lower part of the inclined front surface. (4). Further including an intake duct having one end open and oriented to the front of the vehicle, and another end connecting to a front opening section of the ventilation duct. (5) Including a ventilation duct shared by the fuel cylinder and the electrical circuit. According to characteristic (l) described above, since it is possible to supply external air by concentrating only around the fuel cylinder, it is possible to efficiently cool the fuel cylinder. It is also possible to cool the electrical circuit with external air that has cooled the fuel cylinder. According to the above-described characteristic (2), since the electrical circuit is not directly bombarded with external air that has cooled the fuel cylinder, the electrical circuit is not adversely affected even if fuel gas from the fuel cylinder leaks out and mixes with the external air. According to the above-described characteristic (3), external air that has cooled the fuel cylinder rises along the inclined surface from the front surface lower part of the electrical circuit cover, thus increasing the surface area of the electrical circuit cover that is bombarded by external air, which means that cooling efficiency is increased. According to characteristic (4) described above, it is possible to introduce external air to the ventilation duct without providing a blower fan. According to characteristic (5) described above, it is possible to cool both the fuel cylinder and the electrical circuit with only a single ventilation duct. [Embodiments of the invention] A detailed description will now be given of preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the drawings. Therefore, the present invention relates to a fuel cell vehicle driven by electrical power obtained by supplying fuel gas and reactant gas to a fuel cell stack, characterized in that a fuel cylinder holding the fuel gas, a fuel cylinder cover, covering the fuel cylinder and forming a ventilation duct leading from the front of the vehicle to the rear of the vehicle between the fuel cylinder, and an electrical circuit arranged behind the fuel cylinder so as to face a rear opening section of the ventilation duct are provided. Brief description of the Accompanying drawings Fig. 1 is a partially broken side elevation showing the structure of main parts of a fuel cell motorcycle of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a partially broken perspective view showing the structure of main parts of a fuel cell motorcycle of the present invention. Fig. 3 is a drawing schematically showing the skeleton of a vehicle frame. Fig. 4 is a front view showing the appearance of a fuel cylinder supported by upper frames. Fig. 5 is a drawing of a blower module looking diagonally from the front right of the vehicle. Fig. 6 is a drawing of the blower module looking diagonally from the front left of the vehicle Fig. 7 is a drawing showing the structure of an air cleaner. Fig. 8 is a side elevation showing the structure of a piping system for connecting to a subsequent stage to the blower module. Fig. 9 is a front elevation showing the structure of a piping system for connecting to a subsequent stage to the blower module. Fig. 10 is a cross section along line A - A of the fuel cell box shown in Fig. Fig. 11 is a cross section along line B - B of the fuel cell box shown in Fig. Fig. 12 is a perspective view of a fuel cell stack. FIG. 13 is a plan view of a cell. Fig. 14 is a cross sectional drawing along line A - A in Fig. 13 Fig. 15 is a partially cut-away cross sectional view of a state where a cooling mechanism for cooling a fuel cylinder and an electrical circuit with external air is equipped. Fig. 1 is a partially fractured cross sectional drawing showing the main structure of a fuel cell motorcycle of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the motorcycle, and Fig. 3 is a schematic drawing of a vehicle frame skeleton. The vehicle frame 10 is made up of a head pipe 11, a pair of left and right upper down frames 13 (L, R) extending diagonally downwards with the head pipe 11 as a start point, a pair of left and right lower down frames 12 (L, R) further down that he upper down frames 13 extending downwards with the head pipe 11 as a start point, a pair of left and right upper frames 14 (L, R) extending diagonally upwards from substantially the center of the lower down frames 12 and connecting to the other end of the upper down frames 13 midway, and a pair of left and right lower frames 15 (L, R) further down than the upper frames 14 and extending to the rear from a lower end of the lower down frames 12. The vehicle frame 10 is also a substantially square annular structure, provided with an annular frame 16 supporting a rear end of the upper frame 14 and the lower frame 15 at the four corners of the square annular structure, a rear plate 17 extending diagonally upwards from the rear end of the lower frame 15, and an upper connecting frame 18 and a lower connecting frame 19 connected at a position where the lower frame 14 and the lower frame 15 connect. A front fork 32 axially supporting a front wheel FW and steering handle 30 connected to the front fork 32 are supported on the head pipe 11 a manner capable of being steered. A pair of left and right swing frames 20 are swingably supported at a lower part of the rear plate 17 with a shaft 21 as a fulcrum, and a rear wheel WR as a drive wheel is supported at a rear end of the swing frames 20. As a fuel cell system, the motorcycle of the present invention includes a fuel cell box 42 storing a fuel cell stack (48), a fuel cylinder 41 storing fuel gas (hydrogen) for supply to the fuel cell stack inside the fuel cell box 42, and a piping system 43 for supplying scavenge gas taken in from the atmosphere and reactant gas and cooling gas to the inside of the fuel cell box 42, and also has secondary batteries 81, 93 and fuel cells 82 fitted as an auxiliary power source. The fuel cylinder 41 is supported by and between the left and right upper frames 14, and is mounted further forward than a seat 31 along the upper frames 14, at an inclined attitude such that the shut-off valve 44 side faces to the rear and one end of the shut-off valve side is higher than the other end. Fig. 4 is a front view showing the appearance of the fuel cylinder 41 supported by the upper frames 14, and since the left and right upper frames 14 (L, R) have a narrower gap between the two going from bottom to top, it is possible to support the fuel cylinder 41 in a recumbent attitude. An impact absorbing member is fitted to a surface of the upper frames 14 contacting the fuel cylinder 41. As will be described in detail later, the fuel cylinder 41 is rigidly restrained in the upper frames 14 by a suitable restraint, such as binding bands 24, 25. The fuel cell box 42 is positioned below the fuel cylinder 41 between the pair of left and right lower frames 15, and is fixed by being suspended from brackets 38, 39 provided at two places (a total of four places) on the left and right upper frames 14 (L, R), so as to overlap and run along a line connecting a rotational axis of the front wheel FW and the rotational axis of the rear wheel RW. In this manner, with this embodiment the fuel cylinder 41 and the fuel cell box 42 are arranged so that the fuel cylinder 41 is positioned almost directly above the fuel cell stack, and the seat is positioned behind them, which means that drivability is improved by centralizing the mass. Also, since the fuel cylinder 41 and the fuel cell box 42 are arranged further forward than the seat position, load shared by the rear wheel which was excessive previously, is reduced, while load shared by the front wheel, which was slight previously, is increased, which means that load sharing between the front and ear wheels is made suitable. Also, since the fuel cylinder 41 and the fuel cell stack are arranged close to each other it is possible to shorten the length of a fuel gas supply passage. Secondary batteries 81, 83, as an auxiliary power source, and the fuel cell 82 are arranged in a dispersed manner at the front of the vehicle, below the seat 31 and at the rear of the vehicle, respectively. Also, a down converter 84 for converting the output voltage of the fuel cell system to a voltage for auxiliary devices (for example, 12V), and peripheral circuits (in the following, there are also cases where these are collectively represented as an electrical circuit 84) for the down converter, are mounted to the rear of the seat 31. A blower module 60, for taking in external air at the front of the vehicle and strongly supplying the air to the fuel cell box 42 as scavenge gas, reactant gas or cooling gas, is mounted on the front frame 22 extending forwards from the head pipe 11. Fig. 15 is a partially cut-away perspective view of a state where a cooling mechanism for cooling the fuel cylinder 41 and the electrical circuit 83 with external air is equipped, and the same reference numerals represent the same parts. The fuel cylinder cover 66 covers the fuel cylinder 41 so as to form a ventilation duct connecting from the front of the vehicle to the rear between the outer surface of the fuel cylinder 41 and the cover 66, and ensuring a specified gap between the outer surface and the cover. The electrical circuit cover 67 covers the electrical circuit 84, secondary cells 82 and the battery 83, with a front surface 67a being inclined upwards to the rear. The exhaust duct 68 leads out external air discharged from the ventilation duct formed between the fuel cylinder 41 and the fuel cylinder cover 66 towards a downstream side of the inclined surface 67a of the electrical circuit cover 67. A pair of left and right intake ducts (L, R) have intake ports oriented to the front of the vehicle, with exhaust ports connected to the ventilation duct. With this type of structure, after the fuel cylinder 41 has been cooled by supplying external air that has been taken in from the intake ducts 69 to the ventilation duct formed between the fuel cylinder 41 and the fuel cylinder cover 66, the electrical circuit 84 inside the electrical circuit cover is cooled by the external air flowing along the inclined surface of the electrical circuit cover 67. As a result, it is possible to efficiently cool both the fuel cylinder 41 and the electrical circuit 84 without providing cooling means such as a blowing fan or a blower. According to the above-described embodiment, since the electrical circuit 84 is not directly bombarded with external air that has cooled the fuel cylinder 41, the electrical circuit 84 is not adversely affected even if fuel gas from the fuel cylinder 41 leaks out and mixes with the external air. In other words, according to this embodiment, since it is possible to also cool up to the electrical circuit 84 using external air that has cooled the fuel cylinder 41, there is no need to separately take in external air for cooling the electrical circuit 84 and external air for cooling the fuel cylinder 41. Fig. 5 is a drawing of the blower module 60 looking diagonally from the front right of the vehicle, while Fig. 6 is a drawing of the blower module 60 looking diagonally from the front left of the vehicle, and reference numbers that are the same in the two drawings represent the same parts. The blower module 60 is mainly comprised of a blower body 61 housing a blower motor and a blower fan (neither of which are shown in the drawing), an air cleaner 63, and an intake pipe 62 connecting the air cleaner 63 and the blower body 61. As shown in Fig. 7, the air cleaner 63 has an air filter 63c housed inside a case made up of a right case 63a and a left case 63b. An intake port 64 for taking in external air is formed in a lower end side of the right case 63a, while an exhaust port 65 is formed in a main surface of the left case 63b. The intake pipe 62 is connected to the exhaust port 65. As shown in Fig. 5, the air cleaner 63 is attached to the vehicle body at an attitude with the intake port 64 oriented diagonally downwards to the left of the vehicle body. A cut-out 63d is formed in the side surface of the air cleaner 63, and a blower motor section 61a of the blower body 61 is stored in the cut-out 63d. If the blower body 61 is activated, the intake pipe 62 is put at negative pressure, and external air is sucked from the intake port 64 of the air cleaner 63, This external air is filtered by the air filter 63c inside the air cleaner 63, then taken in to the inside of the intake pipe 62 from the exhaust port 65 and finally supplied to a blowing passage 71 by means of the blower body 61. In this way, with this embodiment, since external air is compressed and supplied to the fuel cell box 42 using the blower module 60, it is possible to improve the power generation efficiency of the fuel cells. Also, with this embodiment, because the air cleaner 63 is arranged further upstream than the blower body 61, it is possible to reduce intake noise generated by the blower body 61 at the air cleaner 63. Further, Since with this embodiment the intake port 64 of the air cleaner 63 is oriented to the bottom of the vehicle body, it is possible to prevent rain water penetrating to the intake port 64. [0038J Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 are a side elevation (Fig. 8) and a front elevation (Fig. 9) showing the structure of a piping system 43 connected to a subsequent stage to the blower module 60, and reference numerals that are the same in these two drawing represent the same parts. Two bypass valves 73, 74 are provided in the 71, and a scavenge gas supply passage 72 for introducing external air into the inside of the fuel cell box 42 as scavenge gas is branched from the upstream bypass valve 73. The upstream bypass valve 73 is an electromagnetic valve, and external air is only supplied to the scavenge gas supply passage 72 when this valve is open. The downstream bypass valve 74 contains an electromagnetic three-way valve, and the blowing passage 71 branches into a reactant gas supply passage 75 and a cooling gas supply passage 79 at the downstream bypass valve 74. Each of the upstream and downstream bypass valves 73, 74 are subjected to opening and closing control by the same ECU that controls the vehicle. The reactant gas supply passage 75 supplies external that is supplied from the blowing passage 71 to the fuel cell stack 48 as reactant gas (oxygen). The cooling gas supply passage 79 supplies external air supplied from the blowing passage 71 to the fuel cell stack 48 as cooling gas. The reactant gas supply passage 75 and the cooling gas supply passage 79 are divided to the left side (cooling gas supply passage 79) and the right side (reactant gas supply passage 75) of the vehicle body, so that internal gas (air) is cooled by being blown by traveling wind. With this embodiment, if an ignition switched is turned on, the blower module 60 is energized to commence suction of external air, and pumping of the sucked in air, which means that the external air passes from the upstream bypass valve 73 of the blowing passage 71 through the scavenge gas supply passage 72, and is guided to the inside of the fuel cell box 42 as scavenge air. At the same time, since the downstream bypass valve 74 is open with this embodiment, the external air is supplied through the reactant gas supply passage 75 to the fuel cell stack 48, and also supplied through the cooling gas supply passage 79 to the fuel cell stack 48. On the other hand, with this embodiment, the temperature Tbatt of the fuel cell stack 48 is routinely measured by a temperature sensor, not shown, and if the ignition switch is turned off, the stack temperature Tbatt is compared with a specified reference temperature Tref 1. Control is carried out so that if Tbatt from the blowing passage 71 to either the reactant gas supply passage 75 side or to the cooling gas supply passage 79, while if Tbatt > Tref 2 supply to the reactant gas supply passage 75 side is stopped and supply only continues to the cooling gas supply passage 79. A scavenge air outlet passage 76 for discharging the scavenge gas, and a hydrogen outlet passage 77 for discharging purged fuel gas (hydrogen) are also connected to the fuel cell box 42, and the other end of each passage is connected to a silencer 70. The scavenge gas and purged hydrogen gas are mixed in the silencer 70 and discharged to the outside. In this way, with this embodiment scavenge gas and purged hydrogen gas are discharged through the silencer 70, which means that it is possible to reduce exhaust noise. The fuel cylinder 41 and the fuel cell box 42 are connected by a fuel gas supply passage 78, and fuel gas (hydrogen) to the fuel cell stack 48 inside the fuel cell box 42 is supplied from the fuel cylinder 41 through this fuel gas supply passage 78. With this embodiment, the voltage of each cell constituting the fuel cell stack is monitored, and if even one of them drops below a reference voltage hydrogen purging is carried out. Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 are a cross section along line A - A and line B - B of the fuel cell box 42 (Fig. 8), and the same reference numerals in each drawing represent the same parts. Inside the fuel cell box 42, the substantially cube-shaped fuel cell stack 48 is supported so that a scavenge air space is ensured between the 6 surfaces of the fuel cell stack 48 and the box cases 42a, 42b. External air introduced from the scavenge gas supply passage 72 to the inside of the fuel cell box 42 as scavenge gas turns gas retained in the space between the box cases 42a and 42b and the fuel cell stack 48 into scavenge gas and discharges it from the scavenge air outlet passage 76. Fig. 12 is a perspective view of the fuel cell stack 48, and a laminated body 90, which is a main part of the fuel cell stack 48 is constructed of a plurality of cells 50 laminated in the direction of arrow A, and with power collection electrodes 58 arranged on either side. Fig. 13 is a plan view of a cell, and Fig. 14 is a cross section along line A - A in Fig. As shown in Fig. 14, a cell 50 is constructed by overlapping a negative electrode side separator 51, a negative electrode 52, a fuel cell ion exchange membrane 53, a positive electrode 54 and a positive electrode side separator 55, and as shown in Fig. 13, has a cooling gas manifold 56 and a reactant gas manifold 57 formed for passing these components through. The negative electrode 52 and the positive electrode 54 are formed from a catalyst bed and a porous layer, and have a gas diffusion function. A cooling gas flow groove 51a is formed in the negative electrode side separator 51, in an outer main surface, and a hydrogen flow groove 51b is formed in a surface of the negative electrode side separator 51 that is opposite the fuel cell ion exchange membrane 53, at an inner main surface. An air flow passage 55b is formed in a surface of the negative electrode 52 that is opposite to the fuel cell ion exchange membrane 53. The cooling gas flow groove 51a links to the cooling gas manifold 56, and the air flow passage 55b links to the reactant gas manifold 57. Although omitted from the drawings, fuel gas supplied from the connecting wall section 41 through the fuel gas supply passage 78 is supplied to the hydrogen flow groove 51b formed in the negative electrode side separator 51. Returning to Fig. 12, the laminated body 90 is covered by endplates 93 arranged on both sides in a laminate direction, side plates 94 arranged on the sides, a top plate 95 arranged at the top, and a bottom plate arranged at the bottom, and pressure increase is maintained so that a constant elastic force acts in the laminate direction. A reactant gas introduction port 91 and a cooling gas introduction port 92 are provided in endplate 93 side end sections. The reactant gas introduction port 91 links to the reactant gas manifold 57, and external air from the reactant gas supply passage 75 is introduced as reactant gas for power generation. This reactant gas is supplied to the airflow passage 55b through the reactant gas manifold 57. The cooling gas introduction port 92 is linked to the cooling gas manifold 56, and cooling gas is introduced from an end section of the blowing passage 71. This cooling as is supplied through the cooling gas manifold 56 to the cooling gas flow groove 51a. With the above-described embodiment, description has been given where the present invention is applied to a two-wheeled vehicle, but the present invention is not thus limited, and can also be similarly applied to a three-wheeled vehicle of a four-wheeled vehicle. [Effects of the invention] According to the present invention, the following effects are achieved: (1) According to the invention of claim 1, since it is possible to supply external air by concentrating only around the fuel cylinder, it is possible to efficiently cool the fuel cylinder. It is also possible cool the electrical circuit using external air that has cooled the fuel cylinder. (2) According to the invention of claim 2, since the electrical circuit is not directly bombarded with external air that has cooled the fuel cylinder, the electrical circuit is not adversely affected even if fuel gas from the fuel cylinder leaks out and mixes with the external air. In other words, since it is possible to also cool up to the electrical circuit using external air that has cooled the fuel cylinder, there is no need to separately take in external air for cooling the electrical circuit and external air for cooling the fuel cylinder. (3) According to the invention of claim 3, external air that has cooled the fuel cylinder rises along the inclined surface from the front surface lower part of the electrical circuit cover, thus increasing the surface area of the electrical circuit cover that is bombarded by external air, which means that cooling efficiency is increased. (4) According to the invention of claim 4, it is possible to introduce external air to the ventilation duct without providing a blower fan. (5) According to the invention of claim 5, it is possible to cool both the fuel cylinder and the electrical circuit with only a single ventilation duct. [Description of the Numerals] 10 vehicle frame 11 head pipe 12 lower down frame 13 upper down frame 14 upper frame 15 lower frame 16 annular frame 30 steering handle 32 front fork 41 fuel cylinder 42 fuel cell box 48 fuel cell stack 51 negative electrode side separator 52 negative electrode 53 fuel cell ion exchange membrane 54 positive electrode 55 positive electrode side separator 60 blower module 61 blower body 62 intake pipe 63 air cleaner 64 intake port 65 exhaust port 71 blowing passage 72 scavenge gas supply passage 73, 74 bypass valve 75 reactant gas supply passage 78 fuel gas supply passage 79 cooling gas supply passage 81, 83 secondary battery WE CLAIM: 1. A fuel cell vehicle driven by electrical power obtained by supplying fuel gas and reactant gas to a fuel cell stack, (48) characterized in that a fuel cylinder (41) holding the fuel gas, a fuel cylinder cover, covering the fuel cylinder (41) and forming a ventilation duct leading from the front of the vehicle to the rear of the vehicle between the fuel cylinder, (41) and an electrical circuit arranged behind the fuel cylinder (41) so as to face a rear opening section of the ventilation duct are provided. 2. The fuel cell vehicle as claimed in claim 1, having an electrical circuit cover for covering the electrical circuit. 3. The fuel cell vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the electrical circuit is inclined with a front surface sloping upwards to the rear, and a rear side open section of the ventilation duct facing a lower part of the inclined front surface. 4. The fuel cell vehicle as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, having an intake duct having one end open and oriented to the front of the vehicle, and another end connecting to a front opening section of the ventilation duct. 5. A fuel cell vehicle as claimed in claim 1, having a ventilation duct shared by the fuel cylinder and the electrical circuit. 6. A fuel cell vehicle substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Documents:

1187-del-2004-abstract.pdf

1187-del-2004-claims.pdf

1187-del-2004-correspondence-others.pdf

1187-del-2004-correspondence-po.pdf

1187-del-2004-description (complete).pdf

1187-del-2004-drawings.pdf

1187-del-2004-form-1.pdf

1187-del-2004-form-19.pdf

1187-del-2004-form-2.pdf

1187-del-2004-form-3.pdf

1187-del-2004-form-5.pdf

1187-del-2004-gpa.pdf