Granted Patent B2

US 7,348,082 · App. 10/772,604 · Granted Mar 25, 2008

Abstract

Claims (24)

1. A method of operating a fuel cell system comprising:

monitoring an air mass flow rate from a compressor to a fuel cell stack with a flow meter;

modeling said flow meter with a first mathematical formula;

generating a measured signal from said flow meter;

processing said first mathematical formula and said measured signal through a KF-based signal processing algorithm to provide a future signal estimate; and

operating said compressor based on said future signal estimate.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said first mathematical formula consists of a 3 rd order model of said flow meter.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising predicting a current signal estimate based on a previously smoothed signal estimate.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said previously smoothed signal estimate is determined based on a previously predicted estimate, a previous signal measurement and a previous gain.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising calculating a smoothed current signal estimate based on a predicted current estimate, a current measurement and a gain.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said future signal estimate is based on said smoothed current signal estimate.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said future signal estimate is further based on a current command signal.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

modeling a compressor command signal with a second mathematical formula; and

calculating said current command signal based on said second mathematical formula.

9. A method of operating a fuel cell system for catalytically reacting a feed stream in a fuel cell comprising:

modeling a control element with a first mathematical formula to create a predictive estimation filter;

operating a compressor to provide a feed stream to a fuel cell at a condition;

monitoring said control element and generating a measurement signal of said feed stream based on said condition;

converting said measurement signal into a smooth state signal through use of said predictive estimation filter; and

regulating said compressor in response to said smooth state signal.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said predictive estimation filter comprises a Kalman filter.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising operating a control element to provide a reactant feed stream to said fuel cell at a flow rate.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising operating said compressor to provide said reactant feed stream to said fuel cell at a flow rate.

Assignments (13)