Patent ID: 8205438

Claim:
A warming-up control device of a catalyst applied to an engine system having a heat recovery device that circulates a working fluid through a predetermined circulation passage and that recovers exhaust gas heat via the working fluid at the same position as the catalyst or upstream of the catalyst in an exhaust passage of an engine, the heat recovery device supplies the recovered heat to a temperature increase object, the warming-up control device comprising: a determination means for determining whether a predetermined state, in which the catalyst performs a predetermined purification reaction, is reached in a process of activation of the catalyst; a first control means for promoting a reaction in the catalyst to increase a catalytic reaction heat when the determination means determines that the predetermined state is reached; and a second control means for controlling the flow of the working fluid in the heat recovery device, wherein the second control means restricts the flow of the working fluid in the heat recovery device to reduce an amount of heat recovered by the heat recovery device below a required amount of heat, which needs to be recovered by the heat recovery device to raise a temperature of the temperature increase object to a predetermined temperature, when the determination means determines that the predetermined state is not reached, wherein: when the determination means determines that the predetermined state is not reached, the second control means restricts the flow of the working fluid by restricting the flow rate of the working fluid such that one of a temperature and a pressure of the working fluid at a heat recovery point in the circulation passage becomes equal to or lower than a limit value thereof, which is set in accordance with strength of the circulation passage at the heat recovery point; and the second control means starts control of the flow rate of the working fluid such that the one of the temperature and the pressure of the working fluid at the heat recovery point is adjusted to a predetermined target value, which is lower than the limit value, through circulation of the working fluid during a predetermined time period that is from a time point, at which the determination means determines that the predetermined state is reached, until a time point, at which the catalyst reaches an activated state of the catalyst so that the circulation of the working fluid during the predetermined time period is started before the time point at which the catalyst reaches the activated state of the catalyst.