Patents by Inventor Tomoya Ogawa

Tomoya Ogawa has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8859157
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes; a fuel cell which generates electricity by using a fuel gas and an oxidant gas as reaction gases; current control means which controls current of a fuel cell; voltage control means which controls voltage of the fuel cell; and heat value control means which calculates a heat value required by the fuel cell system and decides a target current value of the current control means and a target voltage value of the voltage control means so as to generate the calculated necessary heat amount, thereby controlling the heat value. Thus, it is possible to supply a heat required for the fuel cell system without increasing the size of the fuel cell system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kota Manabe, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Patent number: 8846258
    Abstract: The theme of the present invention is a fuel cell system capable of avoiding a disadvantage caused by the maintaining of a low-efficiency operation to improve the safety of a system operation. The fuel cell system is configured to perform the low-efficiency operation having a large power loss as compared with a usual operation at a predetermined low temperature to raise the temperature of a fuel cell in a short time as compared with the usual operation. The fuel cell system prohibits the low-efficiency operation to execute the usual operation, in a case where predetermined conditions are established at the predetermined low temperature. The predetermined conditions include a time when the generated power of the fuel cell cannot be consumed, a time when this generated power cannot be accumulated in a battery, or a time when the flooding of the fuel cell is generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2014
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kota Manabe, Hiroyuki Imanishi, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Patent number: 8815423
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell, a secondary cell, a voltage transformer, and a control portion. The control portion charges the secondary cell with surplus electric power at the time of starting the fuel cell, and adjusts voltage of the fuel cell between an open-circuit voltage and a high-potential-avoiding voltage in the case where the secondary cell is expected to become overcharged while the output voltage of the fuel cell is decreased from the open-circuit voltage to the high-potential-avoiding voltage. The foregoing case is at least one of the case where a passage electric power that passes through the voltage transformer exceeds a secondary cell-charging-purpose permitted-to-pass electric power, the case where the input electric power restriction value for the secondary cell is exceeded, and the case where amount of regeneration by the mover that is charged is not restricted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Michio Yoshida, Atsushi Imai, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Patent number: 8795915
    Abstract: Provided is a fuel cell system capable of making a shift of an operation state while optically controlling an output voltage and an output voltage of a fuel cell. When an ECU judges that the time when an operation should be shifted from a low-efficiency operation to a normal operation has come, the ECU performs, as preprocessing prior to a shift to a ?V control, processing of increasing an oxidant gas supplied to a fuel cell stack by a predetermined amount. After this processing, the ECU detects output power, calculates an output power deviation, and then compares the output power deviation with a set deviation threshold. When the output power deviation exceeds the deviation threshold, the ECU carries out the ?V control, and then carries out an I-V control. Meanwhile, when the output power deviation does not exceed the deviation threshold, the ECU judges that the time when the ?V control is carried out has not come yet, and automatically starts the I-V control without carrying out the ?V control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2014
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Imanishi, Kota Manabe, Yoshiaki Naganuma, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Patent number: 8710790
    Abstract: A fuel cell system comprising a fuel cell that generates electricity through an electrochemical reaction between a fuel gas and an oxidant gas, and a control portion that controls amount of electricity generation at a time of starting the fuel cell, characterized in that the control portion has voltage drop control means for controlling speed of dropping a starting voltage of the fuel cell from an open-circuit voltage to a high-potential-avoiding voltage according to an initial voltage of the fuel cell and to a pre-determined threshold voltage that is lower than the high-potential-avoiding voltage, when the starting voltage of the fuel cell is dropped from the open-circuit voltage to the high-potential-avoiding voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Michio Yoshida, Atsushi Imai, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Patent number: 8691453
    Abstract: Even if a failure occurs in a bypass valve during low-efficiency power generation, the occurrence of an excessive stoichiometry ratio in a fuel cell can be prevented. An output from a pressure sensor or a current sensor is monitored by a control device, and when a failure associated with a closed-valve malfunction of the bypass valve occurs, the degree of opening of the pressure regulating valve is increased to increase an amount of cathode-off gas exhaust, and a revolution speed of an air compressor is reduced to an amount of air discharged by the air compressor, thereby preventing an excessive stoichiometry ratio in the fuel cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2014
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Naoki Kanie, Yoshiaki Naganuma, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Patent number: 8597848
    Abstract: There is disclosed a fuel cell system or the like capable of sufficiently reducing an exhaust hydrogen concentration even in a case where a fuel cell is operated in a state of a low power generation efficiency. A bypass valve is arranged between an oxidation gas supply path and a cathode-off gas channel. In a state in which supply of an oxidation gas to a cathode falls short, pumping hydrogen is included in a cathode-off gas. Therefore, a valve open degree of the bypass valve is regulated, and a flow rate of bypass air is regulated to control the exhaust hydrogen concentration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Imanishi, Kota Manabe, Tomoya Ogawa, Go Tejima, Yoshiaki Naganuma, Hironori Noto
  • Patent number: 8460835
    Abstract: A fuel cell system increases an output voltage of a fuel cell if an electric power generation command value Pref for the fuel cell abruptly reduces while the fuel cell is being warmed up at a low-efficiency operation, which has lower electric power generation efficiency than that of a normal operation. Thus, the surplus electric power Ws corresponding to the difference between an electric power generation amount Pmes of the fuel cell and the electric power generation command value Pref is stored into a capacitive component of the fuel cell, thereby matching the electric power supplied to an external load of the fuel cell (Pmes-Ws) with the electric power generation command value Pref. This makes it possible to conduct control not to supply the surplus electric power to the external load when the electric power required from the fuel cell suddenly reduces during the low-efficiency operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2013
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Imanishi, Kota Manabe, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Patent number: 8361667
    Abstract: Disclosed is a fuel cell system including a fuel cell which generates a power, and control means for decreasing the amount of a reactant gas to be supplied to the fuel cell to an amount smaller than that during normal power generation to realize low-efficiency power generation of the fuel cell. The control means sets the voltage lower limit value of the fuel cell so that the amount of an anode gas (pumping hydrogen) to be formed in a cathode of the fuel cell during the low-efficiency power generation is a predetermined amount or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Imanishi, Kota Manabe, Tomoya Ogawa, Yoshiaki Naganuma
  • Publication number: 20120274137
    Abstract: During an intermittent operation of the fuel cell, a demanded FC voltage calculation portion calculates a predetermined voltage that is below a heightened potential avoidance threshold voltage as a demanded FC voltage, and outputs the voltage to a converter. When during the intermittent operation of the fuel cell, a deviation obtained by subtracting a generated power of the fuel cell from a system's allowable power that is allowable in the fuel cell system becomes less than or equal to a value 0, the demanded FC voltage correction portion corrects a command value provided for the converter so that the deviation becomes equal to the value 0.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2010
    Publication date: November 1, 2012
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Michio Yoshida, Yuji Kakeno, Tomoya Ogawa, Hiromitsu Kawamori
  • Patent number: 8263278
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell which generates electricity; and control means which supplies an output power from the fuel cell to a predetermined load power source while realizing a low-efficiency operation of the fuel cell, thereby driving and controlling the load power source. The control means sets the output voltage of the fuel cell during the low-efficiency operation to a value not smaller than the minimum drive voltage of the load power source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Imanishi, Kota Manabe, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Patent number: 8227123
    Abstract: A control unit 80, when calculating a request current I0 according to a system request electric power Preq and calculating a target current I1 by correcting the request current I0 with PI compensation calculation based on a minimum cell voltage Vm detected by a cell monitor 101, variably changes a proportional gain Kp according to the current value at the present time when calculating a current limit value ?I as the amount of correction of a request current I0 according to the equation ?I=?V×Kp+??V×Ki, thereby enhancing controllability to control the current of a fuel cell 20 to a target current value I1. When controlling the current of a fuel cell by determining a target current value by correcting a request current by PI compensation using the difference between a minimum cell voltage and a threshold voltage, controllability to control the current of the fuel cell to the target current value can be enhanced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Imanishi, Kota Manabe, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Patent number: 8140836
    Abstract: If a defect flag stored in a CF 19 while a BIOS is being booted, an information processing device 10 boots a second program stored in an external device 31 connected to a connection section 21, and if the defect flag is not detected, the information processing device 10 confirms whether or not the first program is bootable. If the first program is confirmed to be bootable, the first program is booted and if not, the defect flag is set in the CF 19 and the power of the information processing apparatus 10 is turned off.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Tomoya Ogawa, Tomohiro Suzuki, Tetsuya Ishikawa, Fumikage Uchida, Munetoshi Eguchi, Hiroaki Yago
  • Patent number: 8110311
    Abstract: There is provided a fuel cell system capable of warming up a fuel cell while inhibiting generation of a rush current. A control device switches the connection/disconnection between a fuel cell and a short circuit by a shorting relay. The control device spends, before switching the shorting relay from disconnection to connection during starting at a low temperature, an oxidizing gas remaining in the cathode of the fuel cell by driving auxiliary devices to generate an oxidizing gas-deficient state. Then, the control device switches FC relays from ON to OFF and the shorting relay from OFF to ON to thereby complete the preparation for supplying a short-circuit current.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2012
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kota Manabe, Kimihide Horio, Hideaki Mizuno, Hironori Noto, Takashi Yamamoto, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Patent number: 8107116
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus comprises a memory; a store control section to divide and store image data in plural vacant memory regions in the memory; and an image administrating information registering section to register each divided image data divided by the store control section by correlating position information of each divided image data in the image data before dividing the image data with storing position information of each divided image data indicating a storing memory region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2012
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Munetoshi Eguchi, Tomohiro Suzuki, Yuji Tamura, Tetsuya Ishikawa, Hiroyasu Nishimura, Tomoya Ogawa, Fumikage Uchida, Nao Moromizato, Masayuki Yasukaga
  • Publication number: 20120021257
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell, a secondary cell, a voltage transformer, and a control portion. The control portion charges the secondary cell with surplus electric power at the time of starting the fuel cell, and adjusts voltage of the fuel cell between an open-circuit voltage and a high-potential-avoiding voltage in the case where the secondary cell is expected to become overcharged while the output voltage of the fuel cell is decreased from the open-circuit voltage to the high-potential-avoiding voltage. The foregoing case is at least one of the case where a passage electric power that passes through the voltage transformer exceeds a secondary cell-charging-purpose permitted-to-pass electric power, the case where the input electric power restriction value for the secondary cell is exceeded, and the case where amount of regeneration by the mover that is charged is not restricted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2010
    Publication date: January 26, 2012
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Michio Yoshida, Atsushi Imai, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Publication number: 20120019191
    Abstract: A fuel cell system comprising a fuel cell that generates electricity through an electrochemical reaction between a fuel gas and an oxidant gas, and a control portion that controls amount of electricity generation at a time of starting the fuel cell, characterized in that the control portion has voltage drop control means for controlling speed of dropping a starting voltage of the fuel cell from an open-circuit voltage to a high-potential-avoiding voltage according to an initial voltage of the fuel cell and to a pre-determined threshold voltage that is lower than the high-potential-avoiding voltage, when the starting voltage of the fuel cell is dropped from the open-circuit voltage to the high-potential-avoiding voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2010
    Publication date: January 26, 2012
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Michio Yoshida, Atsushi Imai, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Publication number: 20120013183
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes: a secondary cell; a voltage converter provided between the secondary cell and a load; a fuel cell; an FC relay that turns on and off electrical connection between the fuel cell and the shared electrical path; an electrical-leakage detector that detects electrical leakage in an electrical system; and a control portion that performs determination regarding electrical leakage. The control portion has: start means for starting the fuel cell by raising voltage of the fuel cell from a starting voltage to an operation voltage that is lower than an open-circuit voltage; and electrical leakage determination means for performing the determination regarding electrical leakage after a predetermined time elapses, when the FC relay is closed while a voltage difference between the voltage of the fuel cell and voltage supplied from the voltage converter to the load is greater than a predetermined threshold value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2010
    Publication date: January 19, 2012
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Michio Yoshida, Tadaichi Matsumoto, Atsushi Imai, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Publication number: 20120015267
    Abstract: A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell that has a plurality of fuel unit cells, and a control portion that controls voltage of the fuel cell. The control portion has: start means for starting the fuel cell by raising the voltage of the fuel cell from a starting voltage to a high-potential-avoiding voltage that is lower than an open-circuit voltage; and command means for further raising the voltage of the fuel cell beyond the high-potential-avoiding voltage if cell voltage of at least one of the plurality of fuel unit cells is lower than or equal to a certain voltage after a certain time elapses after the voltage of the fuel cell is raised to the high-potential-avoiding voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2010
    Publication date: January 19, 2012
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Michio Yoshida, Atsushi Imai, Tomoya Ogawa
  • Publication number: 20120013289
    Abstract: A fuel cell system starts a fuel cell by setting the voltage supplied to a secondary cell from a voltage transformer at an open-circuit voltage of the fuel cell, and raising the voltage of the fuel cell from a starting voltage to the open-circuit voltage, in the case where the secondary cell is expected to be overcharged if the secondary cell receives electric power. In the case where the secondary cell is not expected to be overcharged if the secondary cell receives electric power, the system starts the fuel cell by setting the voltage supplied from the voltage transformer at a high-potential-avoiding voltage that is lower than the open-circuit voltage of the fuel cell at or after the elapse of a predetermined time following the output of a command to close an FC relay, and raising the voltage of the fuel cell from the starting voltage to the high-potential-avoiding voltage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2010
    Publication date: January 19, 2012
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Michio Yoshida, Atsushi Imai, Tomoya Ogawa