JP4382250B2 - Drainage device for fuel cell vehicle - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a drainage device for a fuel cell vehicle that discharges water generated by the fuel cell to the outside of the vehicle body.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a fuel cell vehicle that supplies electricity generated by a fuel cell to a motor and drives wheels by the motor uses a hydrogen gas cylinder or a hydrogen generating reformer and hydrogen (air) as a fuel cell. As fuel. Water generated by the fuel cell is discharged out of the vehicle body.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the conventional fuel cell vehicle configured as described above, the place where water generated by the fuel cell is discharged out of the vehicle body has been a problem. This is because even when driving on a dry road in fine weather, if water generated by the fuel cell hits the tire, the tire slips in the circumferential direction during braking or sudden start, or the tire slips in the lateral direction when turning This is because even when the weather is fine, careful driving operation is required in the same way as when driving in rainy weather, and the usability is deteriorated.
[0004]
The present invention has been made to solve at least the problem that the braking force decreases during straight traveling, and prevents the water generated by the fuel cell from being applied to the tire. Objective.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve this object, a drain device for a fuel cell vehicle according to the present invention has a drain port for water generated by the fuel cell disposed on the side of the vehicle body, and cooling air for cooling the fuel cell. A drainage passage is connected in the middle of an exhaust pipe that discharges the fuel to the outside of the vehicle body, an exhaust port of the exhaust pipe is opened toward the side of the vehicle body, and the exhaust port is used as the drainage port .
According to the present invention, water generated by the fuel cell is discharged to the side of the vehicle body. Further, according to the present invention, since the air that has cooled the fuel cell is blown out from the exhaust port toward the side of the vehicle body, the water is scattered to the side of the vehicle body as pushed by the air.
[0006]
A fuel cell vehicle drainage device according to a second aspect of the present invention is the fuel cell vehicle drainage device according to the first aspect of the invention, wherein the fuel cell vehicle drainage device has a fuel cell mounted on a two-wheeled vehicle and is behind the front wheel of the fuel cell vehicle. The drain outlet is disposed on the turning center side from the locus drawn by the rear wheel when turning as viewed from above when turning to the side where the drain opening is provided .
According to the present invention, it is possible to avoid water on the rear wheel when turning.
[0008]
A drainage device for a fuel cell vehicle according to a third aspect of the present invention is the drainage device for a fuel cell vehicle according to the first or second aspect, wherein heat generated by burning surplus hydrogen discharged from the fuel cell is provided. A fuel cell vehicle drainage device characterized in that a reforming device for reforming a liquid material and generating hydrogen is used as a hydrogen supply source of the fuel cell.
According to the present invention, even if a gas other than hydrogen generated by the reformer is dissolved in water in the fuel cell, this water can be prevented from being applied to the front and rear tires. Can do.
[0009]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
(First embodiment)
Hereinafter, a drain device for a fuel cell vehicle according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. Here, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a fuel cell motorcycle will be described.
1 is a side view of a fuel cell motorcycle according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the same, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a fuel cell system, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a drain, and FIG. It is a top view for demonstrating the movement locus | trajectory of the rear wheel at the time of turning, and the position of a drain outlet.
[0010]
In these drawings, what is indicated by reference numeral 1 is a fuel cell motorcycle according to the present invention. In this fuel cell motorcycle 1, a front wheel 4 is supported by a front end portion of a body frame 2 via a front fork 3 so that the front wheel 4 can be steered, and a unit swing type power unit 6 is disposed in a vertical direction in a portion below the seat 5 in the body frame 2. Is swingably supported.
[0011]
The vehicle body frame 2 includes a head pipe 7 that rotatably supports the front fork 3, two left and right front pipes 8 extending rearwardly downward from the head pipe 7, and lower ends of the front pipes 8. Are formed by rear pipes 9 connected to each other, a cross member 10 connecting these rear pipes 9 and the like. The front fork 3 is fixed to a lower end portion of a steering shaft (not shown) that is rotatably supported by the head pipe 7. A steering handle 11 is fixed to the upper end of the steering shaft. The power unit 6 is mounted with a motor 12 at the front end in a state where the axial direction is directed in the vehicle width direction, and a rear wheel 13 is rotatably supported at the rear end, so that the power of the motor 12 is transmitted. A structure is employed in which the gear is transmitted to the rear wheel 13 via a transmission (not shown) in the case 6a.
[0012]
The rear pipe 9 of the vehicle body frame 2 extends rearward substantially horizontally from the connecting portion with the front pipe 8 and extends rearwardly under the seat 5. The horizontal extension of the rear pipe 9 is indicated by reference numeral 14. A cell stack body 22 of a fuel cell 21 to be described later is mounted on the horizontal extending portion 14. In the fuel cell motorcycle 1 according to this embodiment, the entire vehicle body including the vehicle body frame 2 is covered with a vehicle body cover 23.
[0013]
The fuel cell 21 has a well-known structure. As shown in FIG. 3, the fuel cell 21 generates electricity by supplying hydrogen, the atmosphere, and water for humidification to the cell stack body 22 to generate electricity. Is supplied to the driving device 25 having the motor 12, the battery 24, and the like. Control of the actuators (each fan, each valve, etc.) of the fuel cell 21 is performed by an FC controller indicated by reference numeral 26 in FIG.
[0014]
A driving device 25 is connected to the cell stack body 22 through a diode 27, a current sensor 28, a fuse 29, and the like so that the cell stack body 22 can travel by electricity generated by the fuel cell 21. The driving device 25 includes a motor 12 for driving rear wheels, a power adjusting unit 31 interposed between the motor 12 and the cell stack body 22, a battery 24 connected to the power adjusting unit 31, a motor The vehicle controller 32 that controls the output of the motor 12 is used, and the output of the motor 12 is increased or decreased so as to correspond to the amount of operation of the throttle grip 33 (see FIG. 2) provided on the steering handle 11. Yes.
[0015]
The cell stack body 22 has a cell 22a formed of carbon in a flat plate shape, and a polymer film (for example, an ion exchange resin film) sandwiched between the cells 22a. It is formed by laminating in the direction.
As shown in FIG. 1, the hydrogen supplied to the cell stack body 22 passes from the hydrogen cylinder 34 mounted at the rear end of the vehicle body through the closing valve 35, the flow rate adjusting valve 36, and the buffer tank 37 shown in FIG. 22 to be guided. Hydrogen that has passed through the cell stack body 22 or overflowed from the buffer tank 37 is burned by the catalytic combustor 38 and discharged out of the vehicle body.
[0016]
The air supplied to the cell stack body 22 is guided from a reaction air blower 41 attached to the front end of the cell stack body 22 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. This reaction air blower has a structure in which a filter 42 is attached to the air inlet portion, and as shown in FIG. 3, the atmosphere is sucked through the heat exchanger 43 and the three-way valve 44 and supplied to the cell stack body 22. Yes. The heat exchanger 43 is for removing the moisture in the atmosphere by warming the atmosphere with the heat of the hot water discharged from the cell stack body 22. The three-way valve 44 has a structure for selectively guiding the atmosphere to the heat exchanger 43 and the battery cooling fan 45.
[0017]
The water supplied to the cell stack body 22 is stored in the water tank 46 after passing through the heat exchanger 43, and the water generated by generating electricity in the cell stack body 22 is stored in the cell stack by the water pump 47. It is guided to the body 22. As shown in FIG. 1, the heat exchanger 43, the water tank 46, and the water pump 47 are arranged behind the cell stack body 22 and on the left side of the vehicle body. The water overflowing from the water tank 46 is discharged out of the vehicle body through the drain pipe 51.
[0018]
As shown in FIG. 2, the drain pipe 51 is piped from the water tank 46 located on the left side of the vehicle body to the right side of the vehicle body through the inside of the cross member 10 of the vehicle body frame 2 and connected to an exhaust pipe indicated by reference numeral 52 in FIG. is doing. The exhaust pipe 52 is for discharging the cooling air that has cooled the cell stack body 22 and the exhaust gas after the surplus hydrogen is burned by the catalytic combustor 38 to the outside of the vehicle body. The cell stack body 22 is cooled by feeding the air in the vehicle body cover 23 by a cooling air fan 53 (see FIGS. 1 and 3) to the lower end of the front side of the cell stack body 22 and on the left side of the vehicle body. Air is caused to flow from the left side of the vehicle body to the right side of the vehicle body in the cell stack body 22 and discharged from the end of the right side of the cell stack body 22 to the exhaust pipe 52. The vehicle body cover 23 has a plurality of running wind inlets 23a formed of slits for guiding running wind to the inside in the vicinity of the upper part of the front wheels. The air flowing into the vehicle body cover 23 from the traveling wind inlet 23a is supplied to the cell stack body 22 as reaction air or cooling air.
[0019]
A silencer 54 is interposed in the middle of the exhaust pipe 52 as shown in FIGS. The downstream end of the drain pipe 51 is connected to the downstream side of the silencer 54, and the water is discharged into the exhaust pipe 52. That is, the exhaust port 52a of the exhaust pipe 52 is made to be a drain port.
As shown in FIG. 5, the exhaust port 52a (drainage port) is disposed on the right side of the vehicle body from the rear wheel 13, and opens toward the right side of the vehicle body. More specifically, the exhaust port 52a (drainage port) is located between the front wheel 4 and the rear wheel 13, and when turning to the right side (one side provided with the exhaust port 52a), it is rearward when turning as viewed from above. It arrange | positions so that it may be located in the turning center side from the locus | trajectory which the ring | wheel 13 draws, and it forms so that exhaust_gas | exhaustion and drainage may be discharged | emitted toward the said turning center side. A locus drawn by the rear wheel 13 when turning right is indicated by a two-dot chain line A in FIG. 5, and a locus drawn by the rear wheel when turning left is indicated by a two-dot chain line B.
[0020]
In the fuel cell motorcycle 1 configured as described above, the water outlet generated by the fuel cell 21 is disposed on the side of the vehicle body, so that the water generated by the fuel cell 21 is lateral to the vehicle body. To be discharged.
Accordingly, it is possible to avoid water generated by causing a chemical reaction between a substance other than oxygen in the atmosphere and hydrogen on the tire 13a of the rear wheel 13. For this reason, when the vehicle travels straight on a dry road in a fine weather, the fuel cell motorcycle 1 can be manufactured in which the tire 13a hardly slips even if braking or sudden start is performed.
[0021]
In addition, since the drain port (exhaust port 52a) is disposed between the front wheel 4 and the rear wheel 13 from the trajectory drawn by the rear wheel 13 when turning as viewed from above, on the turning center side, Even in this case, it is possible to avoid the water generated on the rear wheel 13 as well as the front wheel 4, and even if braking, the front wheel 4 and the rear wheel 13 are prevented from slipping in the circumferential direction and sufficient braking is performed. Not only can the performance be exhibited, but also the front wheel 4 and the rear wheel 13 can be prevented from slipping in the lateral direction, and sufficient turning performance can be exhibited.
Further, a drainage passage is connected in the middle of an exhaust pipe 52 for discharging cooling air that has cooled the fuel cell 21 to the outside of the vehicle body, and an exhaust port 52a of the exhaust pipe 52 is opened toward the side of the vehicle body. Since the outlet 52a is used as a drain outlet, when the air that has cooled the fuel cell 21 is blown out from the exhaust outlet 52a toward the side of the vehicle body, water is scattered to the side of the vehicle body so as to be pushed by the air. For this reason, it is possible to reliably avoid the water from being applied to the tire 13a of the rear wheel 13 without providing a pump for blowing off water exclusively.
[0022]
Second Embodiment Hydrogen supplied to a fuel cell can be generated by a reformer as shown in FIG.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another embodiment. In this figure, the same or equivalent members as those described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5 are designated by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof is omitted.
[0023]
The fuel cell 21 shown in FIG. 6 has the same configuration as that of the first embodiment except that the configuration of the hydrogen supply system is different.
In FIG. 6, what is indicated by reference numeral 61 is a reformer. In this reformer 61, liquid methanol is supplied from a methanol tank 62 by a methanol pump 63, and water is supplied from a water tank 46 by a water pump 64, and heating for heating the evaporator 65 is performed. And a catalyst layer 67 for generating hydrogen from the gas generated in the evaporator 65. That is, the travel distance per filling of the raw material can be increased by using the liquid raw material having a high energy density. The heater 66 has a structure in which the methanol supplied from the methanol tank 62 is combusted by the air supplied from the burner fan 68. The heater 66 is formed to burn surplus hydrogen discharged from the cell stack body 22 when the fuel cell 21 is operating.
[0024]
The combustion gas outlet 61a of the reformer 61 is connected to the exhaust pipe 52, and the product gas outlet 61b is connected to a CO reduction device 71 (selective oxidation reactor). The gas containing hydrogen produced by the reformer 61 is mixed with air by the reaction air pump 72 in the middle of flowing into the CO reduction device 71, CO is removed in the CO reduction device 71, and cooling air After being cooled by the air supplied from the fan 53, it is supplied to the cell stack body 22.
[0025]
The gas generated by the reformer 61 contains a lot of CO and corrosive substances in addition to hydrogen. Most of the CO is removed by the CO reduction device 71, but a small amount of CO and other components are supplied to the cell stack body 22 without being removed. Most of the gas other than hydrogen passes through the cell stack body 22 and is combusted by the heater 66 to be exhausted and discharged outside the vehicle body. In addition, a part of the gas other than hydrogen may be dissolved in water in the cell stack body 22 and mixed into the waste water. Since this drainage flows from the drain pipe 51 to the exhaust pipe 52 and is discharged to the right side of the vehicle body from the rear wheel 13, the drainage is applied to the tire 13a of the rear wheel 13 and the tire 13a is likely to slip. Not only will it disappear, it will not be corroded.
[0026]
Therefore, according to this embodiment, even if gas other than hydrogen generated by the reformer 61 is dissolved in water in the fuel cell 21, this water enters the tire 13 a of the rear wheel 13. This can be avoided.
In the first and second embodiments described above, the example in which the present invention is applied to the fuel cell motorcycle 1 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to other fuel cell vehicles such as a fuel cell vehicle and a fuel cell tricycle. It can also be applied to. Further, when the fuel cell 21 is disposed in the vicinity of the front wheel 4, at least the braking performance of the front wheel 4 and / or the turning performance of the front wheel 4 can be achieved by simply disposing the discharge port of the generated water to the side of the vehicle body from the front wheel 4. It can be secured. Even when the fuel cell 21 is arranged in the vicinity of the front wheel 4, the pipe length to the generated water discharge port is lengthened, and the generated water discharge port is arranged on the side of the vehicle body from the rear wheel 13. It is also possible to make it difficult for the generated water to be applied to the rear wheel 13.
[0027]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, since the water generated by the fuel cell is discharged to the side of the vehicle body, the water does not splash on the tire, and the water can easily slip. It can be avoided.
Further, according to the present invention, the water is scattered to the side of the vehicle body as pushed by the cooling air, so that it is ensured that the water is applied to the rear tire without providing a pump for blowing off the water exclusively. Can be avoided.
[0028]
According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to avoid water on the rear wheels of the two-wheeled vehicle when turning, so that when the vehicle runs on a dry road in fine weather, the braking performance is reduced during turning, It is possible to prevent the performance from deteriorating.
[0030]
According to the third aspect of the present invention, even when the travel distance is extended by mounting the liquid raw material and gas other than hydrogen generated by the reformer is dissolved in water in the fuel cell, This water can be avoided from being applied to the rear tire. For this reason, in addition to preventing the tire from slipping, it is possible to realize a fuel cell vehicle equipped with a reformer while preventing corrosion.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a side view of a fuel cell motorcycle according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a plan view of a fuel cell motorcycle according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a fuel cell system.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of a drain outlet.
FIG. 5 is a plan view for explaining the movement trajectory of the rear wheel and the position of the drain outlet during turning.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another embodiment.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Fuel cell motorcycle, 4 ... Front wheel, 13 ... Rear wheel, 21 ... Fuel cell, 51 ... Drain pipe, 52 ... Exhaust pipe, 52a ... Exhaust port (drain port), 61 ... Reformer, 66 ... Heater .

Claims (3)

In a drain device for a fuel cell vehicle that discharges water generated by a fuel cell to the outside of the vehicle body, a drain port for discharging the water is disposed on a side of the vehicle body, and cooling air that cools the fuel cell is provided. A fuel cell vehicle characterized in that a drainage passage is connected in the middle of an exhaust pipe that discharges outside the vehicle body, an exhaust port of the exhaust pipe is opened toward a side of the vehicle body, and the exhaust port is used as the drain port. Drainage equipment. 2. The drain device for a fuel cell vehicle according to claim 1, wherein a drain port is disposed behind a front wheel of the fuel cell vehicle in which the fuel cell is mounted on the two-wheeled vehicle, and the drain port turns to the side where the drain port is provided. drainage apparatus for a fuel cell vehicle, characterized in that disposed on the turning center side of the trajectory rear wheels draws during turning as viewed from above when the. 3. The fuel cell drain according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the reforming device for reforming the liquid material by the heat generated by burning surplus hydrogen discharged from the fuel cell to generate hydrogen is supplied to the fuel cell. A drainage device for a fuel cell vehicle, characterized by being a source.

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