CN109818008B - Modular equipment for fuel cell systems - Google Patents

Abstract

A modular apparatus of a fuel cell system includes a start-up burner, a reformer, an afterburner, and a heat exchanger. The start-up burner, the reformer, the afterburner and the heat exchanger are all arranged in one cavity. The reformer surrounds the start-up burner, and the afterburner is located above and surrounds the reformer. A heat exchanger surrounds the afterburner and the reformer.

Description

Modular equipment for fuel cell systems

technical field

The present invention relates to a fuel cell technology, and in particular to a modular device for a fuel cell system.

Background technique

Fuel cell is the fourth type of new power generation technology after hydropower, thermal power and nuclear power generation technology. It mainly conducts redox reaction with oxygen or other oxidants to convert chemical energy in fuel into electrical energy. The most common fuel is hydrogen, other fuel sources come from any hydrocarbon that can decompose hydrogen, such as natural gas, alcohols, and methane. Since it is not limited by the Carnot cycle, the theoretical efficiency of the fuel cell is over 80%, and the actual efficiency can reach 50% to 60%.

Solid oxide fuel cell (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell, SOFC) is a kind of fuel cell technology using solid ceramic material as electrolyte. The operating temperature of the entire system is between 800°C and 1000°C, which is a high-temperature fuel cell, so it has good flexibility in fuel selection. The optional fuels include methane, natural gas, city gas, biomass, diesel and other carbons. hydrogen compound. When the hydrocarbon fuel is fed into the system, the feed will be reformed to produce a reformed mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and water vapor, in which the hydrogen reacts electrochemically with the oxygen on the cathode side to generate electricity . Therefore, it has the advantages of high efficiency, diverse applicable fuels, and no need to use precious metals as catalysts. At the same time, the high temperature during operation can also be used to increase power generation efficiency or heat source supply, with extremely high waste heat value.

However, due to the extremely high operating temperature of the solid oxide fuel cell system, it needs to rely on an electronic gas heater for supply under high temperature environmental conditions, but the heater is a high energy consumption device, so providing the battery operating heat source in this way will reduce system efficiency. Secondly, due to the complexity of the solid oxide fuel cell system, many pipelines are connected between components, which is easy to cause heat loss of pipelines and reduce system efficiency. Furthermore, if the high-temperature waste heat generated during the operation of the system is not effectively reused, it will increase energy consumption and be unfavorable for environmental protection.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a modular device for a fuel cell system, which can make the temperature distribution inside the device uniform, and can effectively control the heat source of the reformer and the heat exchanger, thereby ensuring the temperature of the stack and reducing the thermal cycle of the stack. (Thermal cycle) times to achieve system simplification, safety, stability and high efficiency.

The modular equipment of the fuel cell system of the present invention is disposed in the cavity, and the modular equipment of the fuel cell system includes a start-up burner, a reformer, an afterburner, and a heat exchanger. The start-up burner, the reformer, the afterburner and the heat exchanger are all arranged in the cavity. The reformer surrounds the start-up burner, and the afterburner is positioned above the start-up burner and surrounds the reformer. As for the heat exchanger, it surrounds the afterburner and the reformer.

Based on the above, the present invention adopts a modular design, so that the start-up burner, the reformer, the afterburner and the heat exchanger are all arranged in a single cavity, so that the heat loss can be reduced without using high-energy-consuming components and devices. , Effective use of high temperature waste heat and real-time temperature control and other functions.

In order to make the above-mentioned features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and easy to understand, the following embodiments are given and described in detail with the accompanying drawings as follows.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a modular apparatus of a fuel cell system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a schematic perspective view of a start-up burner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a schematic perspective view of a reformer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4A is a schematic perspective view of an afterburner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4B is a top view of a fuel dispersion chamber in the afterburner of FIG. 4A.

5 is a schematic perspective view of a heat exchanger according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Among them, the reference numerals are:

100: Chamber 102: Start the burner

102a: Inner tube 102b: Outer tube

104: Reformer 104a, 104b, 106a: Pipelines

104c: Reformed gas discharge pipe 106: Afterburner

108: Heat Exchanger 108a: Cold Air Inlet

108b: hot air outlet 110: battery stack

200: Combustion chamber 202: First fuel feed pipe

204: The first air input pipe 206: The first exhaust pipe

208: Gas Dispersion Cover 300: Vapor Generation Chamber

302: Water inlet pipe 304: Reformer fuel mixing chamber

306: Steam input pipe 308: Reformed gas mixing chamber

310: Reforming chamber 312: Second fuel inlet pipe

314: Reformed gas discharge pipe 400: Mixing combustion chamber

402: Fuel dispersion chamber 404: Third fuel inlet pipe

406: The second air input pipe 408: The second exhaust pipe

410: Fuel output hole 412: Adjustment fuel input pipe

414: High temperature fuel

Detailed ways

Reference is made to the following examples and accompanying drawings for a more complete understanding of the present invention, which may be practiced in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments described herein. In the drawings, various components and their relative sizes may not be drawn to actual scale for clarity.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a modular apparatus of a fuel cell system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1 , the modular equipment of the fuel cell system of this embodiment is disposed in the cavity 100 , and the modular equipment of the fuel cell system includes a start-up burner 102 , a reformer 104 , an afterburner 106 and a heat exchange The device 108, and all the components shown in FIG. 1 are schematic diagrams, and the detailed structure thereof will be described below. The above-mentioned start-up burner 102 , reformer 104 , afterburner 106 and heat exchanger 108 are all arranged in a single cavity 100 , and the reformer 104 surrounds the start-up burner 102 , while the afterburner 106 is located in the start-up burner 102 over and around the reformer 104 . That is, the afterburner 106 surrounds the upper portion of the reformer 104 for providing heat exchange and steam generation preheating. As for the heat exchanger 108, it surrounds the afterburner 106 and the reformer 104, and in FIG. 1, several circles represent the cross section of the coil structure.

In FIG. 1 , the start-up burner 102 has a conical structure with a small inside and a large outside, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the start-up burner 102 may also have a straight cylindrical structure. Since fuel and air need to be fed during combustion, input pipelines in the form of inner and outer tubes may be provided at the bottom of the start-up burner 102, such as an inner tube 102a for feeding fuel and an outer tube 102b for feeding air. The reformer 104 surrounding the start-up burner 102 is used to provide the reaction fuel (such as hydrogen) required by the anode of the cell stack 110, so there is a pipeline 104a for supplying fuel and a pipeline 104b for supplying room temperature water. The reformed gas of the device 104 may be output from the reformed gas discharge pipe 104c. The function of the afterburner 106 is to recycle the anode and cathode high-temperature exhaust gas of the battery stack 110, and then burn it to generate a heat source to provide a heat source for the reformer 104 and the heat exchanger 108. Therefore, the afterburner 106 surrounds the reformer 104. And there is a pipeline 106a connected to the anode and cathode high temperature exhaust gas of the battery stack 110 . As for the heat exchanger 108, it is a coil-type structure and surrounds the inner circumference of the cavity 100, and the heat exchanger 108 has a cold air inlet port 108a and a hot air outlet port 108b, so as to use the start-up burner 102 or the afterburner 106 The generated high-temperature hot air converts the cold air into hot air, which is output to the cathode of the cell stack 110 as a reaction fuel.

The individual components inside the modular device of the fuel cell system will be described in detail below, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

2 is a schematic perspective view of a start-up burner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2 , the start-up burner 102 is used to provide a preheating heat source for the reformer (not shown) and the heat exchanger (not shown) when the system is started at room temperature. The start-up combustor 102 may include a combustion chamber 200 , a first fuel input line 202 , a first air input line 204 , and a first exhaust line 206 . The first air input pipe 204 is disposed at the bottom of the combustion chamber 200 , the first fuel input pipe 202 is located in the first air input pipe 204 , and the first exhaust gas discharge pipe 206 is disposed at the upper part of the combustion chamber 200 .

In this embodiment, the start-up burner 102 may further include a gas dispersion cover 208, which is installed at the end of the first air input pipe 204 and mainly provides the function that the gas can be uniformly dispersed around. Therefore, when the air is fed into the combustion chamber 200 through the first air inlet pipe 204, it will pass through the gas dispersion cover 208, resulting in the intake direction of the air being perpendicular or nearly perpendicular to the extending direction of the first fuel inlet pipe 202. Along the inner wall of the combustion chamber 200 of the conical structure, the inner wall of the combustion chamber 200 is surrounded and advanced upward, so a vortex guide airflow will be formed, and the dispersed fuel will be guided to the combustion chamber 200 for combustion reaction, and the used high-temperature gas will pass through the first. The exhaust gas discharge pipe 206 is collectively discharged. Since the combustion chamber 200 is, for example, a conical structure with a small inside and a large outside, the fluid movement can be increased and the heat transfer efficiency can be improved. In addition, by adjusting the feed ratio of fuel and air, the heat supplied after combustion can be adjusted according to the use demand.

3 is a schematic perspective view of a reformer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3, the reformer 104 includes a steam generating chamber 300, a water input pipe 302, a reformer fuel mixing chamber 304, a steam input pipe 306, a reformed gas mixing chamber 308, a reforming chamber 310, and a second fuel input pipe 312 and a reformed gas discharge pipe 314, wherein several reformed chambers 310 are connected to the reformer fuel mixing chamber 304 and the reformed gas mixing chamber 308. The structure of the reforming chamber 310 can be a chassis-like multi-straight tube type (or a single helical tube type). The heat generated by ) is transferred to the fuel and high-temperature steam flowing inside through the heat of the tube wall, and the reforming reaction is carried out to produce hydrogen-rich reformed gas.

The steam generating chamber 300 is disposed above the start-up burner ( FIG. 2 ) and below the reformed gas mixing chamber 308 , and the water input pipe 302 extends from the bottom to connect to the steam generating chamber 300 , and the structure of the water input pipe 302 can be selected It is a chassis-shaped multi-straight tube type (or a single-spiral tube type), so that the heat generated by the start-up burner (Figure 2) or the afterburner (not shown) is transferred to the internal flow through the wall of the water input pipe 302. Room temperature water is preheated with steam generation. As for the reformer fuel mixing chamber 304 is a ring-like chamber so as to surround the bottom of the start-up burner (FIG. 2). In order to achieve better preheating and steam generation effects, the steam generation chamber 300 is, for example, a circular trough-shaped structure, and the function is to mix preheated water. Therefore, after the room temperature water flows into the steam generation chamber 300 through the water input pipe 302, steam will be generated and the steam will pass through the steam generation chamber 300. The input pipe 306 flows into the reformer fuel mixing chamber 304 and is mixed with the fuel fed from the second fuel input pipe 312 connected to the reformer fuel mixing chamber 304 to supply fuel and high temperature steam to the reformer chamber 310 . Finally, the reformed gas generated in the reforming chamber 310 will be merged into the reformed gas mixing area 308 (eg, a circular trough-shaped structure), and will be concentrated in the reformed gas discharge pipe 314 to flow out to the anode side inlet of the battery stack (not shown). ).

4A is a schematic perspective view of an afterburner according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4A , the afterburner 106 is used to recover the high temperature exhaust gas from the anode and cathode (not shown) of the stack to be mixed and combusted to generate a heat source, which is provided as a reformer 104 (including a steam generator) and a heat exchanger (not shown). source of heat in the high temperature range shown). The afterburner 106 includes a mixing combustion chamber 400 , a fuel dispersion chamber 402 , a third fuel input pipe 404 , a second air input pipe 406 , and a second exhaust gas discharge pipe 408 . The fuel dispersion chamber 402 is arranged in the mixing combustion chamber 400 and has a plurality of fuel output holes 410, so that the high temperature fuel (such as the high temperature exhaust gas of the anode and cathode of the cell stack) enters the fuel dispersion chamber 402 (such as a ring-shaped) along the third fuel input pipe 404. After the top surface of the structure), the fuel output holes 410 arranged around the annular structure are evenly dispersed to the surrounding, so as to improve the combustion efficiency. The second air inlet pipe 406 is connected to the side of the mixing combustion chamber 400 . The second exhaust pipe 408 is connected to the bottom surface of the mixing combustion chamber 400 .

In this embodiment, the afterburner 106 may further include a conditioning fuel input pipe 412 that communicates with the third fuel input pipe 404 . Moreover, in order to achieve the function of temperature adjustment of the afterburner 106, the conditioning fuel input pipe 412 and the second air input pipe 406 for inputting conditioning air can be provided on the opposite side of the fuel dispersion chamber 402, and through these two flows The feed ratio of the road is adjusted, and the air-fuel ratio is adjusted to achieve the purpose of heat adjustment.

When the air is introduced from the second air input pipe 406 on the side of the mixing combustion chamber 400 as shown in FIG. 4B , it will move forward along the inner wall of the mixing combustion chamber 400 to form a vortex guide airflow, which is guided along the third fuel input pipe 404 enters the fuel dispersion chamber 402 and the dispersed high temperature fuel 414 enters the mixing combustion chamber 400 for combustion reaction to generate high temperature heat, which provides preheating of other components.

In one embodiment, the second exhaust gas discharge pipe 408 of the afterburner 106 of FIG. 4A may communicate with the first exhaust gas discharge pipe 206 of the start-up burner 102 of FIG. 2 to concentrate exhaust gas.

5 is a schematic perspective view of a heat exchanger according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Please refer to FIG. 5 , the heat exchanger 108 is used to utilize the high-temperature hot gas generated by the start-up burner ( FIG. 2 ) and the post-burner ( FIG. 4A ), through the pipe as a heat transfer medium, forming a function like a heat exchanger, and providing steam as a heat exchanger Generation or use of air preheating. The heat exchanger 108 can thus be of a coiled configuration to surround the reformer ( FIG. 3 ) other than the afterburner ( FIG. 4A ) and the start-up burner ( FIG. 2 ), the heat exchanger 108 has a cold air inlet 108a and Hot air outlet 108b. The cold air inlet 108a may be provided at the bottom of the cavity (100 in FIG. 1 ), and the hot air outlet 108b may be provided at the top of the cavity (100 in FIG. 1 ).

The following experiments are presented to verify the efficacy of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to the following contents.

Table 1 is the simulation comparison performed by the present invention and the existing equipment, and the results are shown as follows.

Table 1

It can be seen from Table 1 that the design of the present invention is not affected by the environment and external pipelines, so the heat loss is significantly reduced, and the high temperature waste heat is effectively used to provide the heat source of the peripheral components (BOP) of the fuel cell of the system.

<Simulation example>

Simulate a cylindrical space with a height of 40cm and a radius of 10cm, and simulate a start-up burner as shown in Figure 2, with a height of 35cm, a bottom cylinder of 5cm, a diameter of 4cm, and a cone angle of 10 degrees.

<Simulation comparison example>

A cylindrical space was simulated as in the simulated experimental example, and a cylindrical start-up burner with a height of 35 cm and a radius of 5 cm was simulated.

The heat flow field between the start-up burner and the reformer is simplified to the cylindrical space of the above simulation, and the heat energy is exchanged with the reformer through the outer wall. Heat Transfer Optimization Evaluation Metrics: Increase the average temperature of the field.

Results Compared with the cylindrical structure of the simulated comparative example, the start-up burner with the conical structure of the simulated experimental example can increase the average temperature of the field by 6.05%, and the Nusselt number (Nusselt number) is increased by 7.83%, which has an excellent heat transfer effect. .

To sum up, the present invention integrates the reformer, the start-up burner, the afterburner and the heat exchanger in the same cavity, and this structural design has the start-up burner and the afterburner, so that the temperature distribution inside the cavity can be uniform, The air-fuel ratio can be controlled through a separate air input pipe to adjust the temperature in the equipment. Moreover, the present invention can achieve the effects of reducing heat loss, effectively utilizing high-temperature waste heat, and real-time temperature control without using high-energy-consuming components and devices, thereby achieving the goals of system simplification, safety, stability and high efficiency.

Although the present invention has been disclosed as above with embodiments, the specific embodiments are not intended to limit the present invention. Any person skilled in the art can make some improvements and perfections without departing from the concept and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention The scope of protection is subject to the claims.

Claims (9)

1. A modular device for a fuel cell system, comprising: start the burner; a reformer, surrounding the start-up burner; an afterburner disposed above the start-up burner and surrounding the reformer, the afterburner comprising: mixed combustion chamber; a fuel dispersion chamber, which is arranged in the mixed combustion chamber and has several fuel output holes; the fuel dispersion chamber is an annular structure, and the fuel output holes are arranged around the annular structure; The third fuel input pipe is connected to the top surface of the fuel dispersion chamber; a second air inlet pipe connected to the side of the mixing combustion chamber; and a second exhaust pipe connected to the bottom surface of the mixed combustion chamber; and a heat exchanger surrounding the afterburner and the reformer, Wherein the start-up burner, the reformer, the afterburner and the heat exchanger are all arranged in a cavity. 2. The modular apparatus of the fuel cell system of claim 1, wherein the start-up burner comprises: combustion chamber; a first air input pipe, arranged at the bottom of the combustion chamber; a first fuel input pipe, disposed in the first air input pipe; and The first exhaust pipe is arranged on the upper part of the combustion chamber. 3 . The modular device of the fuel cell system according to claim 2 , wherein the combustion chamber has a conical structure. 4 . 4 . The modular device of the fuel cell system according to claim 2 , wherein the start-up burner further comprises a gas dispersing cover, which is installed at the rear of the first air inlet pipe, so that the air intake direction is vertical or horizontal. 5 . Nearly perpendicular to the extending direction of the first fuel inlet pipe. 5. The modular apparatus of the fuel cell system of claim 1, wherein the reformer comprises: a steam generating chamber, arranged above the start-up burner; a water inlet pipe extending from the bottom of the start-up burner to connect to the steam generating chamber; a reformer fuel mixing chamber surrounding the bottom of the start-up burner; a steam input pipe connecting the steam generating chamber and the reformer fuel mixing chamber; a reformed gas mixing chamber, arranged above the steam generating chamber; at least one reforming chamber, connecting the reformer fuel mixing chamber and the reformed gas mixing chamber, and having a catalyst in the at least one reforming chamber; a second fuel input pipe connected to the reformer fuel mixing chamber; and A reformed gas discharge pipe is connected to the reformed gas mixing chamber. 6 . The modular device of the fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein the afterburner further comprises a regulating fuel input pipe, which is communicated with the third fuel input pipe. 7 . 7 . The modular device of the fuel cell system according to claim 1 , wherein the second exhaust gas discharge pipe is communicated with the first exhaust gas discharge pipe. 8 . 8 . The modular device of the fuel cell system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the heat exchanger is of a coil type structure, surrounded along the inner circumference of the cavity, and the heat exchanger has an inlet for cold air. 9 . and hot air outlet. 9 . The modular device of the fuel cell system according to claim 8 , wherein the cold air inlet is arranged at the bottom of the cavity, and the hot air outlet is arranged at the top of the cavity. 10 .

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