Direct liquid fuel cell power generation device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11302939-B2
Application number	US-201816621354-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 29, 2018
Priority date	Dec 4, 2017
Publication date	Apr 12, 2022
Grant date	Apr 12, 2022

Abstract

A direct liquid fuel cell power generation device comprises a direct liquid fuel cell system and a low-temperature auxiliary starting component. A heat exchanger is arranged at a stack cathode inlet. The heat of a fuel solution at a stack anode outlet is used to heat the air. The heat generated by an electronic load for starting is used to heat a condenser. The heat of a methanol solution at a liquid outlet of a gas-liquid separator is used to preheat high-concentration fuel flowing into a refueling pump. Starting and operation in a low-temperature environment can be realized through auxiliary heating of external power supplies such as the low-temperature auxiliary starting component or an in-vehicle cigarette lighter. Organic micromolecule substances such as methanol and ethanol are used as fuel and are subjected to catalytic combustion in a catalytic combustor.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A direct liquid fuel cell power generation device, comprising a direct liquid fuel cell system; the direct liquid fuel cell system comprises a fuel cell stack, an air pump, a gas-liquid separator, a fuel circulating pump and a condenser; a gas outlet of the air pump is connected with a stack cathode inlet pipeline, and a stack cathode outlet is connected with a cathode material recovering port pipeline of the gas-liquid separator through the condenser; a liquid outlet of the gas-liquid separator is connected with a stack anode inlet pipeline through the fuel circulating pump, and a stack anode outlet is connected with an anode material recovering port pipeline on the gas-liquid separator; the gas-liquid separator is provided with a cathode material recovering port, an anode material recovering port, an auxiliary solution inlet and the liquid outlet, wherein:
the direct liquid fuel cell system also comprises an auxiliary starting power interface and a liquid fuel delivery port; the liquid fuel delivery port is connected with the auxiliary solution inlet of the gas-liquid separator through a liquid fuel communicating tube; the auxiliary starting power interface is connected with an electric heating element wound outside the liquid fuel communicating tube through a conducting wire; the auxiliary starting power interface is connected with the electric heating element arranged on a lower wall surface in an anode material gas-liquid separation chamber through the conducting wire;
the direct liquid fuel cell power generation device also comprises a auxiliary starting component; the low temperature auxiliary starting component comprises an auxiliary solution storage tank, an electric heater, a solution delivery pump, a power supply and an auxiliary power supply plug; the electric heater is arranged on the bottom of the auxiliary solution storage tank to heat a solution in the auxiliary solution storage tank; the power supply powers the electric heater, or powers the electric heater and the solution delivery pump at the same time;
a liquid outlet of the solution delivery pump is communicated with the liquid fuel delivery port of the direct liquid fuel cell system; a liquid inlet of the solution delivery pump is connected with the auxiliary solution storage tank; the auxiliary power supply plug is electrically connected with the auxiliary starting power interface of the direct liquid fuel cell system directly or through a voltage converter to power the electric heating element of the direct liquid fuel cell system in a starting phase.

2. The direct liquid fuel cell power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein: the electric heater in the auxiliary starting component is a first PTC heater; the electric heating element of the direct liquid fuel cell system is one or more than one of an electric heating strip, or an electric heating wire, or an electric heating belt, or a second PTC heater.

3. The direct liquid fuel cell power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein: the power supply is a lithium battery or a lead-acid battery or a super capacitor.

4. The direct liquid fuel cell power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein: the direct liquid fuel cell system comprises a first heat exchanger; a stack anode outlet solution is used as hot fluid of a first heat exchanger; stack cathode inlet gas is used as a cold fluid of the first heat exchanger for realizing the function of preheating the stack cathode inlet gas by the stack anode outlet solution.

5. The direct liquid fuel cell power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein: the direct liquid fuel cell system also comprises an electronic load for starting and a controller; the electronic load for starting is arranged on the condenser; and the electronic load for starting is connected with the fuel cell stack in parallel, is also electrically connected with the controller, and works in the starting phase of the stack to heat the condenser.

6. The direct liquid fuel cell power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein: the direct liquid fuel cell system is structurally separated from the auxiliary starting component.

7. The direct liquid fuel cell power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein: the gas-liquid separator is a closed container; a transverse partition board is arranged in the middle of the closed contained to divide the interior of the closed container into an upper and a lower chamber which are not connected with each other; the upper chamber is a cathode material gas-liquid separation chamber; the lower chamber is an anode material gas-liquid separation chamber; a through hole is formed on the partition board; an annular protrusion is arranged around the through hole on an upper surface of the partition board; a conduit is arranged at a lower part of the through hole; an upper end of the conduit is connected with the through hole; a lower end of the conduit extends below a liquid level in the anode material gas-liquid separation chamber; the cathode material gas-liquid separation chamber is provided with the cathode material recovering port and a tail gas outlet;
the anode material gas-liquid separation chamber is provided with an anode material recovering port in a middle-upper part, and is provided with a liquid outlet and an auxiliary solution inlet in a lower part; the anode material gas-liquid separation chamber is provided with a gas outlet on a upper part; the gas outlet is communicated with a middle-upper part of the cathode material gas-liquid separation chamber through a pipeline, or a through hole as a carbon dioxide discharge port is formed on the partition board; and carbon dioxide passing through the carbon dioxide discharge port passes through a liquid layer on the upper surface of the partition board and enters the cathode material gas-liquid chamber.

8. The direct liquid fuel cell power generation device according to claim 5 , wherein: the gas-liquid separator in the direct liquid fuel cell system is also provided with a high-concentration fuel inlet; and a high-concentration fuel inlet pipeline is connected with an outlet of a refueling pump.

9. The direct liquid fuel cell power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein: an air pressure equalizing tube is arranged on an upper part of the auxiliary solution storage tank in the low auxiliary starting component.

10. The direct liquid fuel cell power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein: a liquid volume in the auxiliary solution storage tank is obtained by a visible scale on the tank.

11. The direct liquid fuel cell power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein: the fuel cell stack has an inner cavity for heating; and hot tail gas generated after organic fuel is subjected to catalytic combustion flows through the inner cavity to heat the stack.

12. The direct liquid fuel cell power generation device according to claim 11 , wherein: the inner cavity has any one or a combination of more than one of the following structures: a hollow closed inner cavity is arranged in one or more than one bipolar plate inside the stack; the inner cavity is provided with an inlet and an outlet;
a hollow closed inner cavity is arranged in one or two stack end plates, and the inner cavity is provided with an inlet and an outlet;
one or more than one heat conducting plate attached to the stack is arranged outside the stack; a hollow closed inner cavity is arranged in the heat conducting plate; and the inner cavity is provided with an inlet and an outlet;
a heat conducting tube attached to the stack is arranged outside the stack; a chamber in the heat conducting tube is the inner cavity through which

Assignees

• Dalian Inst Chem & Physics Cas

Inventors

• Sun Hai
• Ma Shengnan
• Qin Bing
• Sun Gongquan

Classifications

• H01M8/04302 Primary

  applied during start-up · CPC title

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title

• H01M8/04022 Primary

  Heating by combustion · CPC title

• H01M8/04253

  Means for solving freezing problems · CPC title

• H01M8/0258

  characterised by the configuration of channels, e.g. by the flow field of the reactant or coolant · CPC title