Patents Examined by Stewart A Fraser
  • Patent number: 11799107
    Abstract: An oxygen supply apparatus and method for a fuel cell of an aircraft are provided. The oxygen supply apparatus includes a compressor that generates compressed air by compressing air in the atmosphere and supplies the compressed air to a fuel cell stack, an oxygen tank having a predetermined amount of oxygen stored therein. An aircraft monitoring device monitors the aircraft and determines whether oxygen supply from the oxygen tank is required, and an oxygen supply means switching device switches an oxygen supply means for the fuel cell stack from the compressor to the oxygen tank, or vice versa depending on an outcome of the monitoring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Corporation
    Inventors: Joung Ho Lee, Nam Woo Lee, Hee Sung Yoon
  • Patent number: 11799162
    Abstract: An aerospace battery may include a housing, a retaining seat disposed in the housing, and a battery pack core supported by the retaining seat in the housing. The battery pack core may include at least one cell district comprising a plurality of pouch cell batteries and at least one flexible cold plate disposed between at least two adjacent pouch cell batteries of the plurality of pouch cell batteries. The retaining seat may define a fluid delivery channel configured to couple to an inlet of a cooling channel of the flexible cold plate and a fluid return channel configured to couple to an outlet of the cooling channel of the flexible cold plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignees: Rolls-Royce Singapore Pte. Ltd., Rolls-Royce plc
    Inventors: Michael Adam Zagrodnik, Teh Yee Siang, Mathivanan Anand Prabhu, Krishnamoorthi Sivalingam, Stephen Mountain
  • Patent number: 11799100
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes, in an auxiliary device case, a first layer, a second layer and a third layer in order from the end plate side, a coolant discharge pipe arranged in the first layer, cathode-side discharge pipes respectively connected to a plurality of oxygen-containing gas lead-out through holes which interpose the coolant discharge pipe, a plurality of first penetrating portions penetrating the first layer in the thickness direction, and a first connecting part provided in the second layer, extending in the layer direction of the second layer so as to straddle the coolant discharge pipe on the outer side, and connecting the plurality of first penetrating portions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Ryoichi Yoshitomi
  • Patent number: 11791486
    Abstract: A method for operating a fuel cell power generation system is presented and includes sequentially resting fuel cell modules corresponding to a designated reference module number, from among all fuel cell modules of the fuel cell power generation system, during a designated number of cycles while operating remaining fuel cell modules, gradually reducing a number of the fuel cell modules sequentially rested during the cycles from the reference module number, whenever average performance of the fuel cell modules is sequentially reduced by exceeding designated reference levels configured to be sequentially set, and repairing or replacing the fuel cell modules when the average performance of the fuel cell modules is reduced by a designated lower limit or more.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Corporation
    Inventors: Ju Hae Jung, Sun Hee Jo
  • Patent number: 11791520
    Abstract: A welding structure of metal members includes a first member having a first opposing surface, a second member having a second opposing surface, and a welding portion fixing the first member and the second member to each other. A gap is formed between the first opposing surface and the second opposing surface. R1>R2 is satisfied where R1 represents a width of the welding portion in the gap and R2 represents a width of the welding portion on the first opposing surface of the first member. T2>T1 is satisfied where T2 represents a thickness of the second member in the portion where the welding portion is formed and T1 represents a thickness of the first member in the portion where the welding portion is formed. 0.8?D1/T1?1.2 is satisfied where D1 represents a depth of the welding portion in the second member from the second opposing surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: PRIME PLANET ENERGY & SOLUTIONS, INC.
    Inventors: Takafumi Tsujiguchi, Kazuki Oshima, Ryoichi Wakimoto, Hiroshi Takabayashi
  • Patent number: 11791489
    Abstract: A redox flow battery system comprising a catholyte in fluid communication with a cathode, an anolyte in fluid communication with an anode, a membrane in fluid communication with the catholyte and the anolyte, and positive and negative terminals in contact with a power supply and a load. The positive and negative terminals configured to charge the redox flow battery in an opposite direction such that the anolyte is oxidized and the catholyte is reduced. The anolyte and the catholyte are kept separate and never mixed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: UOP LLC
    Inventor: William T. Kender
  • Patent number: 11784307
    Abstract: Although silicon-oxide based particles have stable capacity and high cycling efficiency as anode active material, they are known to suffer significant capacity loss during the first battery cycles. The addition of lithium silicate may help to mitigate the initial capacity loss, but it has been difficult to produce such anodes. During battery manufacture cell components are exposed to water, and lithium silicate is water soluble. As lithium silicate dissolves, the pH of the water increases, which can etch silicon, degrading the anode active material. Such degradation can be mitigated by doping lithium silicate with multivalent elements or by converting some silicon to metal silicide before water processing. Doping of lithium silicate makes it less soluble in water. And metal silicide is not as easily etched as silicon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: Amprius Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Kai Yan, Hongduan Huang
  • Patent number: 11784324
    Abstract: A separator for a fuel cell is overlapped with a membrane electrode assembly to form a stack unit of a power generation cell stack body. The separator is provided with a positioning section to be overlapped in the stacking direction in a manner that the stack units are positioned with respect to each other. A marginal portion of the positioning section has a bent surface formed by bending the separator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Hidenori Okamura
  • Patent number: 11784327
    Abstract: A fuel cell cooling system may include a fuel cell stack that produces electricity by use of a fuel, a fuel cell cooler that cools cooling water for cooling the fuel cell stack through exchange of heat with external air, an exhaust line that exhausts an exhaust gas generated by the fuel cell stack, a condenser fluidically connected to the exhaust line to generate condensate by condensing the exhaust gas and store the generated condensate, an ejector connected to the condenser to eject the condensate to an external surface of the fuel cell cooler, and a condensate cooler connected to the condenser to cool the condensate stored in the condenser through exchange of heat therebetween.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignees: Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Corporation
    Inventor: Gang Woong Lee
  • Patent number: 11782339
    Abstract: A pellicle for an EUV photo mask includes a first capping layer, a matrix layer disposed over the first capping layer, a second capping layer disposed over the matrix layer; and a metallic layer disposed over the second capping layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventor: Yun-Yue Lin
  • Patent number: 11784337
    Abstract: A membrane electrode assembly (MEA) includes a membrane, a cathode catalyst layer, a cathode co-catalyst layer including a hydrogen reservoir, an anode catalyst layer, and an anode co-catalyst layer including a hydrogen reservoir. The anode co-catalyst layer and the cathode co-catalyst layer cap a cathode potential at lower than 1.5V and an anode potential at lower than 1.0V. The anode co-catalyst layer and the cathode co-catalyst layer can include a platinum doped rare earth oxide, such as platinum doped cerium oxide.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: HYZON MOTORS INC.
    Inventors: Rajesh Bashyam, Zhai Jun
  • Patent number: 11784360
    Abstract: A battery module includes a cell unit, including a plurality of battery cells disposed on both surfaces of a unit plate, and a case accommodating the cell unit. The unit plate includes a plurality of receiving spaces, in which the plurality of battery cells are disposed, and a connection member disposed between the receiving spaces to electrically connect the battery cells to each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: SK ON CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hae Ryong Jeon, Seok Hwan Lee, Seung Hoon Ju, Ha Neul Choi
  • Patent number: 11777124
    Abstract: The current disclosure teaches one to achieve PBI membranes with high ionic conductivity and low mechanical creep for the first time. This is in contrast to previous teachings of PBI membrane fabrication methods, which yield PBIs with either high ionic conductivity and high mechanical creep or low ionic conductivity and low mechanical creep. The membranes produced according to the disclosed process provide doped membranes for applications in fuel cells and electrolysis devices such as electrochemical separation devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: University of South Carolina
    Inventors: Laura A. Murdock, Fei Huang, Brian C. Benicewicz
  • Patent number: 11777121
    Abstract: A power system comprises a fuel cell system having a fuel cell stack and a fuel cell water pump, a heat source having a heat source water pump and configured to be actuated to generate heat, a heat radiator for exchanging heat with the atmosphere, a cooling passage thermally connecting the fuel cell system, the heat source, and the heat radiator, and a controller for controlling the fuel cell system, the heat source, and the heat radiator, and the cooling passage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Junya Miyazaki, Nobutaka Nakajima, Kento Takeuchi, Kenji Taruya
  • Patent number: 11777110
    Abstract: A fuel cell includes: an electrolyte membrane-electrode structure in which electrodes are provided on both surfaces of an electrolyte membrane and a frame member is joined to the outer peripheral portion of the electrolyte membrane; and a pair of separators for sandwiching the electrolyte membrane-electrode structure, wherein an overlapping portion of the outer peripheral portion of the electrode and the inner peripheral portion of the frame member is disposed in a flow field section in which flow field grooves for allowing a reactant gas to flow along the electrode surface of the electrolyte membrane-electrode structure are formed, and is disposed so as not to extend into buffers between the flow field section and passages.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takaaki Shikano, Masaru Oda, Yoshihito Kimura
  • Patent number: 11769879
    Abstract: A coaxially arranged energy storage device suitable for energy storage and structural support for a composite component is provided. The coaxially arranged energy storage device contains an anode core of a continuous carbon fiber;, an electrolyte coating coaxially arranged on the continuous carbon fiber core; and a cathode layer coating coaxially arranged to the continuous carbon fiber core on the electrolyte coating. The electrolyte coating comprises a gel or elastomer of a cross-linked polymer and a lithium salt and a Young's modulus of the gel or elastomer of a cross-linked polymer is from 0.1 MPa to 10 Mpa. The cathode layer comprises particles of a cathode active material embedded in a matrix of an electrically conductive polymer. Methods to prepare the coaxially arranged energy storage device are described and utilities described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA MOTOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING NORTH AMERICA, INC.
    Inventors: Jae Seung Lee, Paul Gilmore
  • Patent number: 11764377
    Abstract: A fuel cell system mounted on a vehicle includes a fuel cell, a humidity sensor configured to detect a humidity in a vehicle cabin of the vehicle, a cathode off-gas exhaust passage through which cathode off-gas emitted from the fuel cell is exhausted to outside the vehicle, an introducing port for cathode off-gas, provided in the cathode off-gas exhaust passage, a cathode off-gas introducing unit configured to introduce cathode off-gas emitted from the fuel cell, into the vehicle cabin of the vehicle via the introducing port, and a cathode off-gas introducing amount control unit configured to control an amount of the cathode off-gas introduced into the vehicle cabin of the vehicle in accordance with a humidity in the vehicle cabin of the vehicle, detected by the humidity sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shigetaka Hamada, Fumihisa Ishiguro, Kiyoshi Yoshinaga
  • Patent number: 11764379
    Abstract: An air cleaner includes a body disposed inside a stack case which is to store a fuel cell stack, and having an upper portion detachably coupled to a top plate of the stack case, and a filter disposed inside the body to filter air introduced into the body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: HYUNDAI MOBIS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Seung Taek Lim
  • Patent number: 11762281
    Abstract: Membranes for EUV lithography are disclosed. In one arrangement, a membrane has a stack having layers in the following order: a first capping layer including an oxide of a first metal; a base layer including a compound having a second metal and an additional element selected from the group consisting of Si, B, C and N; and a second capping layer including an oxide of a third metal, wherein the first metal is different from the second metal and the third metal is the same as or different from the first metal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: ASML NETHERLANDS B.V.
    Inventors: Maxim Aleksandrovich Nasalevich, Erik Achilles Abegg, Nirupam Banerjee, Michiel Alexander Blauw, Derk Servatius Gertruda Brouns, Paul Janssen, Matthias Kruizinga, Egbert Lenderink, Nicolae Maxim, Andrey Nikipelov, Arnoud Willem Notenboom, Claudia Piliego, Mária Péter, Gijsbert Rispens, Nadja Schuh, Marcus Adrianus Van De Kerkhof, Willem Joan Van Der Zande, Pieter-Jan Van Zwol, Antonius Willem Verburg, Johannes Petrus Martinus Bernardus Vermeulen, David Ferdinand Vles, Willem-Pieter Voorthuijzen, Aleksandar Nikolov Zdravkov
  • Patent number: 11757100
    Abstract: A battery cell includes a current collector, separator, anode, and deposition biasing element. The anode is positioned between the current collector and separator, and includes an ion conducting ceramic material with a porous structure. The biasing element is positioned within the battery cell so as to bias ion deposition within the anode, during a charging process, away from the separator. A method for forming a battery cell includes electrospinning particles of material into a mesh to form an anode that includes an ionically conductive material. At least one biasing element is applied to at least one of the anode and a current collector. The anode is positioned between the current collector and a separator. The current collector and the separator are joined to the anode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2023
    Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
    Inventors: John F. Christensen, Ram Subbaraman