Patent ID: 7125618

Claim:
A hydrogen supply system for a fuel cell, comprising: a hydrogen storage unit configured to store hydrogen; a hydride storage unit configured to store aqueous hydride; a reactor coupled to the hydride storage unit and configured to be supplied with aqueous hydride from the hydride storage unit, the reactor configured to react the supplied aqueous hydride to generate oxide and hydrogen; a heat exchanger coupled to the reactor and configured to be supplied with hydrogen from the reactor to transfer heat contained in the supplied hydrogen to a coolant circulating through a fuel cell stack; a regenerator also coupled to the reactor and configured to be supplied with oxide from the reactor and hydrogen from the hydrogen storage unit, where the regenerator is configured to react the supplied oxide and hydrogen, thereby generating an aqueous hydride; a first valve disposed inline between the hydrogen storage unit and the fuel cell stack and configured to control a supply of hydrogen from the hydrogen storage unit to the fuel cell stack; a second valve disposed inline between the hydrogen storage unit and the regenerator and configured to control a supply of hydrogen from the hydrogen storage unit to the regenerator; a third valve disposed inline between the heat exchanger and the fuel cell stack and configured to control a supply of hydrogen from the heat exchanger to the fuel cell stack; a temperature detector configured to detect a temperature of coolant flowing to the fuel cell stack and to generate a corresponding temperature signal; and a control unit configured to generate control signals for actuating the first valve, the second valve, and the third valve based on the temperature signal from the temperature detector.