Fuel cell system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9515329-B2
Application number	US-201414407462-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 20, 2014
Priority date	Apr 11, 2013
Publication date	Dec 6, 2016
Grant date	Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

A fuel cell system including a fuel cell; a cathode air heat exchanger configured to perform heat exchange between a cathode exhaust gas and the air to be supplied to the cathode to transfer a part of heat energy of the cathode exhaust gas to the air; a desulfurization unit configured to remove a sulfur component from a raw material supplied to the desulfurization unit; and a reformer configured to generate a reformed gas which is the fuel from steam and the raw material from which the sulfur component has been removed by the desulfurization unit; and the cathode exhaust gas which has lost a part of the heat energy by the heat exchange in at least the cathode air heat exchanger, is supplied to the desulfurization unit, to heat the desulfurization unit by the heat energy of the cathode exhaust gas.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A fuel cell system comprising:
a fuel cell configured to generate electric power through a power generation reaction by using fuel supplied to an anode and air supplied to a cathode;
a cathode air heat exchanger configured to perform heat exchange between a cathode exhaust gas which is air discharged after the air has been used in the fuel cell and the air to be supplied to the cathode to transfer a part of heat energy of the cathode exhaust gas to the air;
a desulfurization unit configured to remove a sulfur component from a raw material supplied to the desulfurization unit;
a reformer configured to generate a reformed gas which is the fuel from steam and the raw material from which the sulfur component has been removed by the desulfurization unit; and
a combustion unit configured to combust an anode exhaust gas discharged from the anode after an anode gas has been used as the fuel in the fuel cell,
wherein the cathode exhaust gas flows through the cathode air heat exchanger without flowing through the combustion unit, the cathode exhaust gas which has lost a part of the heat energy by the heat exchange in at least the cathode air heat exchanger, is supplied to the desulfurization unit, and the desulfurization unit is heated by the heat energy of the cathode exhaust gas.

2. The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an anode exhaust gas condenser configured to perform heat exchange between the anode exhaust gas and the air to be supplied to the cathode such that a part of heat energy of the anode exhaust gas is transferred to the air, to condense the anode exhaust gas to recover condensed water;
wherein the air which has been pre-heated by a part of the heat energy of the anode exhaust gas by the heat exchange in the anode exhaust gas condenser is supplied to the cathode air heat exchanger.

3. The fuel cell system according to claim 2 ,
wherein the desulfurization unit is configured to remove the sulfur component from the raw material by a hydrodesulfurization method.

4. The fuel cell system according to claim 3 , further comprising:
a recycle passage which is configured to divide a flow of the anode exhaust gas from which the condensed water has been recovered in the anode exhaust gas condenser such that a part of the anode exhaust gas is supplied to an upstream side of the desulfurization unit;
wherein the desulfurization unit is configured to include a desulfurization catalyst which adsorbs the sulfur component in the raw material, of a mixture gas of the part of the anode exhaust gas and the raw material.

5. The fuel cell system according to claim 2 ,
wherein the combustion unit is configured to combust the anode exhaust gas from which the condensed water has been recovered in the anode exhaust gas condenser, by using combustion air supplied to the combustion unit; and
wherein the reformer is configured to generate the reformed gas from the raw material and the steam which are supplied to the reformer, through a reforming reaction, by using heat energy of a combustion exhaust gas generated by combustion of the anode exhaust gas in the combustion unit.

6. The fuel cell system according to claim 5 , further comprising:
an evaporation unit which is supplied with the combustion exhaust gas discharged after a part of the heat energy of the combustion exhaust gas has been used in the reformer, and evaporates the condensed water by using the heat energy of the combustion exhaust gas to generate the steam added to the raw material to be supplied to the reformer.

7. The fuel cell system according to claim 5 , further comprising:
an evaporation unit which is supplied with the combustion exhaust gas discharged after a part of the heat energy of the combustion exhaust gas has been used in the reformer and the cathode exhaust gas discharged after a part of the heat energy of the cathode exhaust gas has been used by heating the desulfurization unit, and evaporates the condensed water by the heat energy of the combustion exhaust gas and the heat energy of the cathode exhaust gas to generate the steam added to the raw material to be supplied to the reformer.

8. The fuel cell system according to claim 5 , further comprising:
an evaporation unit which is supplied with the combustion exhaust gas discharged after a part of the heat energy of the combustion exhaust gas has been used in the reformer and the cathode exhaust gas discharged after a part of the heat energy of the cathode exhaust gas has been used by the heat exchange in the cathode air heat exchanger, and evaporates the condensed water by the heat energy of the combustion exhaust gas and the heat energy of the cathode exhaust gas to generate the steam added to the raw material to be supplied to the reformer;
wherein the cathode exhaust gas discharged after a part of the heat energy of the cathode exhaust gas has been used in the evaporation unit is supplied to the desulfurization unit to heat the desulfurization unit by the heat energy of the cathode exhaust gas.

9. The fuel cell system according to claim 7 , further comprising:
a heat exchanger configured to perform heat exchange between the cathode exhaust gas discharged after a part of the heat energy of the cathode exhaust gas has been used in the evaporation unit and the combustion air to be supplied to the combustion unit.

10. The fuel cell system according to claim 8 , further comprising:
a heat exchanger configured to perform heat exchange between the cathode exhaust gas discharged after a part of the heat energy of the cathode exhaust gas has been used in the desulfurization unit and the combustion air to be supplied to the combustion unit.

11. The fuel cell system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an anode exhaust gas condenser configured to perform heat exchange between the anode exhaust gas and air to be supplied to the cathode such that a part of heat energy of the anode exhaust gas is transferred to the air, to condense the anode exhaust gas to recover condensed water,
wherein the anode exhaust gas flows through the anode exhaust gas condenser and the combustion unit in this order.

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Onuma Shigenori
• Ukai Kunihiro
• Maruyama Takehiro

Classifications

• H01M8/0618

  Reforming processes, e.g. autothermal, partial oxidation or steam reforming · CPC title

• H01M8/04014 Primary

  Heat exchange using gaseous fluids; Heat exchange by combustion of reactants · CPC title

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title

• H01M8/04074

  Heat exchange unit structures specially adapted for fuel cell · CPC title

• H01M8/0675

  Removal of sulfur · CPC title