Hydrogen production system and method for producing hydrogen

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10227700-B2
Application number	US-201514926529-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 29, 2015
Priority date	Oct 31, 2014
Publication date	Mar 12, 2019
Grant date	Mar 12, 2019

Abstract

A hydrogen production system includes: a steam generator heating supplied raw water and generating steam; an electrolytic cell receiving the steam and generating hydrogen and oxygen through a high temperature electrolysis; a cooling unit cooling an unreacted part of the steam in the high temperature electrolysis and changing the unreacted part of the steam into steam condensate; a gas/liquid separator performing gas/liquid separation on the generated hydrogen and the generated steam condensate; a hydrogen compression unit compressing the separated hydrogen and transmitting thermal energy generated when the hydrogen is compressed, to the raw water; and a hydrogen storage unit storing the compressed hydrogen.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A hydrogen production system comprising:
a steam generator configured to heat supplied raw water and generate steam;
an electrolytic cell configured to receive the steam and generate hydrogen and oxygen through a high temperature electrolysis;
a cooling unit configured to cool an unreacted part of the steam in the high temperature electrolysis and change the unreacted part of the steam into steam condensate;
a gas/liquid separator configured to separate the hydrogen from the steam condensate;
a hydrogen compression unit configured to compress the hydrogen and transmit thermal energy generated, when the hydrogen is compressed, to the raw water;
a hydrogen storage unit configured to store the compressed hydrogen; and
a heat pump that is provided between the hydrogen compression unit and the steam generator, the heat pump configured to compress and expand a refrigerant to transfer the thermal energy, wherein
the hydrogen compression unit is configured to transmit the thermal energy to the raw water with an intermediation of the refrigerant.

2. The hydrogen production system according to claim 1 , wherein the raw water to be supplied to the steam generator is utilized as cooling water for cooling the unreacted part of the steam.

3. The hydrogen production system according to claim 1 , wherein the steam generator is configured to heat the raw water by using renewable energy.

4. A method for producing hydrogen, comprising the steps of:
heating supplied raw water and generating steam;
receiving the steam and generating hydrogen and oxygen through a high temperature electrolysis;
cooling an unreacted part of the steam in the high temperature electrolysis and changing the unreacted part of the steam into steam condensate;
performing gas/liquid separation on the generated hydrogen and the generated steam condensate;
compressing the separated hydrogen and transmitting thermal energy generated when the hydrogen is compressed, to the raw water with the intermediation of a refrigerant, the refrigerant being compressed and expanded by a heat pump to transfer the thermal energy; and
storing the compressed hydrogen.

Assignees

• Toshiba Kk

Inventors

• Oomura Hisao
• Yamada Kazuya
• Makino Shinichi
• Watanabe Hisao
• Fujiwara Seiji
• Kasai Shigeo

Classifications

• Y02P20/129

  Energy recovery, e.g. by cogeneration, H2recovery or pressure recovery turbines · CPC title

• C25B1/04 Primary

  by electrolysis of water · CPC title

• Y02E60/366

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• C25B1/10

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic

• Y02P20/133

  Renewable energy sources, e.g. sunlight · CPC title