This application is based upon and claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202211114113.5, filed Sep. 14, 2022, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present disclosure relates to a field of a fuel cell technology, and more particularly, to a fuel cell power generation device.
Electric power is widely used in people's daily life. An existing backup power supply includes a backup generator that has an uninterruptible power supply and is powered by a diesel generator. The uninterruptible power supply and the diesel generator may cause an environmental issue. An existing domestic coal gas is generally used for direct combustion, and is not directly used for the backup power supply.
It should be noted that the information disclosed in the BACKGROUND section is only used to facilitate understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and therefore may include information that does not constitute the prior art known to those in the art.
A fuel cell power generation device provided by embodiments of the present disclosure may be connected to a coal gas pipeline in home or other buildings to provide a second backup power.
Additional features and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description, or may be learned in part by practice of the present disclosure.
According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a fuel cell power generation device is provided and includes: a fuel cell, including an anode and a cathode, configured to decompose hydrogen and generate electric energy through reaction of decomposed hydrogen and oxygen; a first delivery pipe, connected between a pipeline of a hydrogen-containing gas and the fuel cell and configured to deliver the hydrogen-containing gas to the anode of the fuel cell; a first output pipe, connected to the fuel cell and configured to discharge a first remaining gas contacted with the anode of the fuel cell; a second delivery pipe, connected to the fuel cell and configured to deliver an oxygen-containing gas to the cathode of the fuel cell; a second output pipe, connected to the fuel cell and configured to discharge a second remaining gas contacted with the cathode of the fuel cell. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the present disclosure.
Some illustrative embodiments of the present disclosure are described in the following drawings, in which same reference numerals represent same elements. These described embodiments are intended to be exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, which is not intended to limit the present disclosure.
The examples of embodiments are now described comprehensively with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the examples of embodiments may be implemented in multiple forms, and it should not be understood as being limited to the examples described herein. Conversely, the embodiments are provided to make this disclosure more comprehensive and complete, and comprehensively convey the idea of the examples of the embodiments to those in the art.
In addition, the described features, structures, or properties may be combined in one or more embodiments in any appropriate manner. In the following descriptions, specific details are provided to give a comprehensive understanding of the embodiments of the present disclosure. However, those skilled in the art are to be aware that, the technical solutions in present disclosure may be implemented without one or more of the particular details, or another method, unit, apparatus, or step may be used. In other cases, well-known methods, apparatuses, implementations, or operations are not shown or described in detail, to avoid obscuring the aspects of the present disclosure.
The block diagrams shown in the accompany drawings are merely functional entities and do not necessarily correspond to physically independent entities. That is, the functional entities may be implemented in a software form, or in one or more hardware modules or integrated circuits, or in different networks and/or processor apparatuses and/or microcontroller apparatuses.
The flowcharts shown in the accompanying drawings are merely examples for descriptions, do not need to include all content and operations/steps, and do not need to be performed in the described orders either. For example, some operations/steps may be further divided, while some operations/steps may be combined or partially combined. Therefore, an actual execution order may change according to an actual case.
Electric power is widely used in people's daily life, but power failure may occur. Thus, having a second power supply in a building or home may guarantee power supply in the building or home in case of the power failure. Although an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that is based on a battery may provide this kind of guarantee, the power design of the UPS only lasts for several minutes and the UPS then stops. For a backup generator powered by a diesel generator, good maintenance and storage of diesel fuel are required. There are also environmental issues with the UPS and the diesel generator.
As shown in
In one embodiment, the hydrogen-containing gas is a coal gas and the oxygen-containing gas is an air.
The fuel cell 101 further at least includes a proton exchange membrane (PEM) 1013 between the anode 1011 and the cathode 1012, a first catalyst 1014 and a second catalyst 1015. The hydrogen-containing gas contacts the anode 1011 of the fuel cell via the first delivery pipe 102, the hydrogen in the hydrogen-containing gas is decomposed into two protons and two electrons under action of the first catalyst 1014. The protons are ‘attracted’ to the other side of PEM 1013 by oxygen, while the electrons form a current via an external circuit and then reach the cathode 1012. Under action of the second catalyst 1015 of the cathode, the protons, oxygen and electrons react to form water molecules. A remaining gas of the hydrogen-containing gas (the first remaining gas) is output via the first output pipe 103. When the hydrogen-containing gas is the coal gas, the first remaining gas may be connected and delivered via the second delivery pipe 104 to be used as a common gas fuel for heating, cooking and boilers.
The proton exchange membrane is a core component of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), which plays a key role in battery performance. Inside the fuel cell, the proton exchange membrane provides a channel for proton migration and delivery, such that the protons pass through the proton exchange membrane from the anode to the cathode and form a loop with electron transfer of the external circuit to provide a current to the outside. Thus, performance of the proton exchange membrane plays a very important role in performance of the fuel cell, and its quality directly affects service life of the battery.
The oxygen-containing gas is connected to the cathode of the fuel cell via the second delivery pipe 104. The oxygen in the oxygen-containing gas generates water molecules with the protons and the electrons at the cathode under the action of the catalyst. When the oxygen-containing gas is the air, the water molecules and the remaining air are discharged via the second output pipe 105.
In the fuel cell power generation device in
Referring to
In one embodiment, the hydrogen separator 201 may, for example, adopt a pressure swing adsorption technology or a membrane separation technology, which is not limited in the present disclosure, as long as it is a technology that may separate the hydrogen. The pressure swing adsorption technology is generally based on a method of pressure and compression to separate gas in different pressurized forms under different pressures and temperatures.
The fuel cell power generation device in
Referring to
The fuel cell power generation device in
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The fuel cell power generation device in
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The fuel cell power generation device in
Referring to
The fuel cell power generation device in
Referring to
In the schematic diagram of the usage process of the fuel cell power generation device shown in
The coal gas has a typical composition of hydrogen 50%, methane 35%, carbon monoxide 10% and ethylene 5%. Although different coal gases in different cities may have slightly difference in its composition, this composition represents a typical and common composition. It can be seen that the hydrogen amounts to 50% and the rest is hydrocarbon fuel or carbon monoxide fuel. For methane, its chemical formula is CH4, and ethylene's chemical formula is C2H4. 50% content of hydrogen is non-greenhouse gas fuel. It is to connect the coal gas to the hydrogen fuel cell and the hydrogen is then converted to stream through the PEM. The gases including methane, carbon monoxide and ethylene are not activated by PEM.
For a case without using the fuel cell, the typical efficiency to convert from fuel to energy is ηch. A typical parameter for ηch is 15%. For the fuel cell, its efficiency rift is 50%. Energy content of the four fuel gases found in the coal gas may be tabulated as follows:
After using the fuel cell power generation device of the present disclosure, a theoretical efficiency of the coal gas may be obtained by using a following formula (1):
where EH2, ECH4, ECO and EC2H4 are an energy density per unit volume of H2, CH4, CO and C2H4 respectively, RH2, RCH4, RCO and RC2H4 are a volume ratio of the coal gas of H2, CH4, CO and C2H4 respectively, and ηFC_H2 is the fuel cell efficiency and flaw, ηCO and ηC2H4 are the efficiency of the gas fuel to output of CH4, CO and C2H4 respectively. According to formula (1), the theoretical efficiency is the 23%, which is much higher than the combustion efficiency of the gas fuel which is 15%.
An energy ratio of hydrogen to remaining gases in the coal gas may be determined according to a formula (2):
For a certain flow rate Fhe (L/min) of the remaining coal gases to the heating apparatus, the heat energy output per unit time Ehe (MJ/min) from the combustion of the remaining coal gases after the fuel cell extraction of the hydrogen may be determined according to a formula (3):
E
he
=F
he(ECH4RCH4ηCH4+ECORCOηCO+EC2H4RC2H4ηC2H4) (3)
A corresponding electric energy output EFC (MJ/min) may be determined according to a formula (4):
Energy requirement stored in the battery is Ebat, in a case of known operation duration, it may be determined according to according to a formula (5):
E
bat
=E
FC
T
he (5)
In an embodiment, the hydrogen-containing gas is a coal gas and the oxygen-containing gas is an air.
In an embodiment, the device further includes a hydrogen separator, connected to the first delivery pipe and configured to deliver hydrogen to the anode of the fuel cell through the first delivery pipe after extracting the hydrogen from the hydrogen-containing gas.
In an embodiment, the device further includes a first flow controller, mounted to the first delivery pipe and configured control a gas flow of the hydrogen-containing gas delivered to the anode of the fuel cell; a second flow controller, mounted on the second delivery pipe and configured to control a gas flow of the oxygen-containing gas delivered to the cathode of the fuel cell.
In an embodiment, the device further includes a cooler, mounted to the first output pipe, and configured to cool the first remaining gas.
In an embodiment, the device further includes an air driver, mounted to the second delivery pipe, and configured to drive the air to the second delivery pipe.
In an embodiment, the device further includes a rechargeable battery, connected to the anode and cathode of the fuel cell and configured to store and buffer the electric energy generated by the fuel cell.
In an embodiment, the device further includes a direct current converter, connected to the rechargeable battery to convert the electric energy of the rechargeable battery into direct current electric energy suitable for use by a load.
In an embodiment, the device further includes an alternating current converter, connected to the rechargeable battery and configured to convert the electric energy of the rechargeable battery into alternating current electric energy suitable for use by a load.
In an embodiment, the device further includes a hydrogen-containing gas filter, connected to the first delivery pipe and configured to filter a corrosive gas in the hydrogen-containing gas; an air filter, connected to the second delivery pipe and configured to filter a corrosive gas in the oxygen-containing gas.
According to the fuel cell power generation device of the present disclosure, the fuel cell decomposes the hydrogen and the decomposed hydrogen reacts with oxygen to generate the electric energy; the first delivery pipe is connected between a pipeline of a hydrogen-containing gas and the fuel cell and delivers the hydrogen-containing gas to the anode of the fuel cell; the first output pipe is connected to the fuel cell and configured to discharge a first remaining gas contacted with the anode of the fuel cell; the second delivery pipe is connected to the fuel cell and configured to deliver the oxygen-containing gas to the cathode of the fuel cell; the second output pipe is connected to the fuel cell and configured to discharge the second remaining gas contacted with the cathode of the fuel cell, which is suitable for connecting with a coal gas pipelines in the home or other buildings, so as to provide the second backup power.
In the specification, claims, and accompanying drawings of the present disclosure, the terms “first”, “second”, and “third”, and the like are intended to distinguish between different objects but do not indicate a particular order. In addition, the term “including” and any other variant thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, a method, an apparatus, a product, or a device that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but optionally further includes an unlisted step or unit, or optionally further includes another inherent step or unit of the process, the method, the apparatus, the product, or the device.
A person skill in the art may be further aware that, in combination with examples of units and algorithm steps described in the embodiments disclosed in this specification, this disclosure may be implemented by using electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination thereof. To clearly describe interchangeability between the hardware and the software, compositions and steps of each example have been generally described according to functions in the foregoing descriptions. Whether the functions are executed in a mode of hardware or software depends on particular applications and design constraint conditions of the technical solutions. A person skilled in the art may use different methods to implement the described functions for each particular application, but it is not to be considered that the implementation goes beyond the scope of this disclosure.
The method and related apparatus provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure are described with reference to method flow charts and/or structure diagrams provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure. Specifically, each process and/or block of the method flow charts and/or schematic structural diagrams, and combination of processes and/or blocks in the flow charts and/or block diagrams may be implemented by computer-readable instructions. These computer-readable instructions may be provided to a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, an embedded processor, or a processor of another programmable data processing device to generate a machine, so that the instructions executed by the computer or the processor of the another programmable data processing device generate an apparatus for implementing a specific function in one or more processes in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the schematic structural diagrams. These computer-readable instructions may also be stored in a computer readable memory that can guide a computer or another programmable data processing device to work in a specified manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer readable memory generate a product including an instruction apparatus, where the instruction apparatus implements functions specified in one or more procedures in the flowcharts and/or one or more blocks in the schematic structural diagrams. The computer-readable instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or another programmable data processing device, so that a series of operations and steps are performed on the computer or the another programmable device, thereby generating computer-implemented processing. Therefore, the instructions executed on the computer or the another programmable device provide steps for implementing a specific function in one or more processes in the flow charts and/or in one or more blocks in the schematic structural diagrams.
What is disclosed above is merely preferred embodiments of this disclosure, and certainly is not intended to limit the scope of the claims of this disclosure. Therefore, equivalent variations made in accordance with the claims of this disclosure shall fall within the scope of this disclosure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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202211114113.5 | Sep 2022 | CN | national |