Patent ID: 7576512

Claim:
A secondary battery charging system mounted on a vehicle comprising: a secondary battery configured to supply an electrical energy for use in start-up of an internal combustion engine as a driving power source of the vehicle; an electrical load configured to receive the electrical energy from the secondary battery during the stop of the internal combustion engine; a fuel cell configured to generate the electrical energy in an electrochemical reaction of combining a hydrogen and oxygen, and to supply the generated electrical energy to the secondary battery; a fuel storage unit configured to store the fuel to be consumed for the electrochemical reaction in the fuel cell; and a fuel supply controller that is configured to: (i) control the supply of fuel from the fuel storage unit to the fuel cell in order to generate electrical energy in the fuel cell, (ii) judge whether or not a predetermined period of time has elapsed, where the predetermined period of time is counted from when operation of the internal combustion engine stops, and (iii) instruct the fuel cell to initiate the generation of electrical energy, and provide the generated electrical energy to the secondary battery when the fuel supply controller determines that the predetermined period of time has elapsed.