Chemistry: electrical current producing apparatus – product – and – With pressure equalizing means for liquid immersion operation
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-24
2004-03-02
Bell, Bruce F. (Department: 1746)
Chemistry: electrical current producing apparatus, product, and
With pressure equalizing means for liquid immersion operation
C429S010000, C429S006000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06699610
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to an anode stream recirculation system for a fuel cell, in particular, an anode stream recirculation system used in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, and most particularly, a hydrogen recirculation system utilized in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The present invention eliminates certain elements required in the conventional anode stream recirculation system for a fuel cell and, thus reduces the cost for manufacture of the components of the fuel cell. Furthermore, this invention lowers the electrical energy required for running the anode stream recirculation system so that the overall efficiency of electrical power generation for the fuel cell system can be promoted.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rapid growth of civilization the consumption of traditional energy resources, such as coal, oil and natural gas, increases rapidly. This results in serious environmental pollution and causes a series of environmental problems such as global warming and acid rain. It has now been recognized that the natural energy resources are limited. Therefore, if the present rate of energy consumption continues, all existing natural energy resources will be exhausted in the near future. Accordingly, many developed countries are conducting research and development of new and alternative energy resources. The fuel cell is one of the most important and reasonably priced energy resources. Compared with traditional internal combustion engines, the fuel cell has many advantages such as high energy conversion efficiency, clean exhaust, low noise, and no consumption of traditional gasoline.
In brief, a fuel cell is an electrical power generation device powered by the electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. Basically, the reaction is a reverse reaction of the electrolysis of water, to convert the chemical energy into electrical energy. The basic structure of a fuel cell, for example, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, comprises a plurality of cell units. The structure of the cell unit generally illustrated in
FIG. 1
comprises a proton exchange membrane (PEM)
10
at the middle, with the two sides thereof provided with a layer of catalyst
12
, each of the two outsides of the catalyst
12
is further provided with a gas diffusion layer (GDL)
14
. An anode plate
16
and a cathode plate
18
are further provided at the outermost sides adjacent to the GDL
14
. After tightly combining all the above elements together, a cell unit is formed. For practical application of the fuel cell, a plurality of the above cell units are stacked and serially connected to provide sufficient power, as illustrated in FIG.
2
. Therefore, two adjacent cell units can share a common polar plate
20
, as illustrated in
FIG. 3
, which serves as the anode and the cathode for the two adjacent cell units, respectively. Accordingly, such a polar plate
20
is usually referred as a bipolar plate. Generally, as illustrated in
FIG. 3
, the two sides of the bipolar plate
20
are provided with many groove type gas channels
22
for transporting the gases for reaction, such as hydrogen and air (to provide oxygen), as well as transporting the reactants, such as water droplets or vapor, out of the bipolar plate
20
.
One conventional gas supply system for use in a fuel cell comprises: a cathode gas supply system (such as an oxygen supply), and an anode circulation system (such as a hydrogen circulation system), as illustrated in FIG.
4
. Atmospheric air may serve as a supply of the oxygen supply system
30
, where air is filtered by a filter
32
and than pumped into the fuel cell
50
through a blower
34
. Excessive air, upon reaction within the fuel cell
50
, is discharged through a water recuperator
36
. The water recuperator
36
may recuperate the minute amount of water contained within the discharged air, where the water is then directed to a cooling system
38
. The useless heat generated by the fuel cell
50
is also transmitted to the cooling system
38
. The coolant used in the cooling system
38
then re-enters the fuel cell
50
to provide sufficient cooling thereto.
The conventional anode circulation system includes: a hydrogen source
40
which regulates hydrogen input through a regulation valve
42
; a hydrogen pump
44
being provided at the other end of the fuel cell
50
for discharging excessive hydrogen, upon reaction within the fuel cell, and for pumping the hydrogen source
40
into the fuel cell
50
. The excessive hydrogen is discharged through a humidifier
46
, such as a bubbler, for increasing the humidity of the excessive hydrogen, then flows back into the piping of the hydrogen supply to be mixed with fresh hydrogen, and then repeats the same circulation. The water within the humidifier
46
can be communicated with the water within the cooling system
38
.
The hydrogen within the bipolar plate of the fuel cell must have adequate humidity such that the hydrogen ions (H
+
) after reaction can be carried through the PEM by the water vapor. The hydrogen ions then react with the oxygen at the other side of the PEM and the electrons provided from the outer circuit, to establish proton conduction. Generally, if the humidity of the hydrogen is too low, the PEM will be dehydrated, thus, the electrical resistance of the fuel cell will increase and the voltage of the fuel cell will decrease, which will result in the working life of the fuel cell being significantly shortened. If, on the other hand, the humidity of the hydrogen is too high, the channels for transporting the gases within the bipolar plate may be clogged by water droplets, which will stop the reaction of gases within the fuel cell and the performance of the fuel cell will be seriously impaired. Accordingly, in the anode stream recirculation system, a humidifier to adjust the humidity of the hydrogen is generally required.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A primary objective of this invention is to improve the conventional anode stream recirculation system by detecting the pressure of the excessive hydrogen discharged from the fuel cell to determine the open/close of the hydrogen source. Therefore, the conventional hydrogen pump may be eliminated and the parasitic loss of electrical energy of the fuel cell itself can be reduced and the overall efficiency of electrical power generation by the fuel cell system can be promoted.
A further objective of this invention is to automatically clear out the gas channels of the bipolar plates within the fuel cell by the pressure pulses introduced from intermittently open/close of the hydrogen source so that no water droplet will stay within the gas channels to impair the power generation efficiency of the fuel cell. A further objective of this invention is to simplify the manufacturing process and to lower the production cost of the fuel cell by improving the design of the humidifier used in the anode stream recirculation system.
The primary technical contents of this invention are related to an anode stream recirculation system for a fuel cell. The fuel cell includes an anode gas input and an anode gas output. The anode stream recirculation system comprises: an anode gas supply providing the anode gas required for reaction of the fuel cell; a switch connected with the anode gas supply to control the open/close of the anode gas supply; a regulating device with one end thereof being connected with the switch and the other end thereof being connected with the anode gas input of the fuel cell, to control the amount of supplied anode gas; a sensor connected with both the anode gas output of the fuel cell so as to detect the amount of the anode gas discharged from the fuel cell after reaction, the sensor also connected with the switch so as to control the open/close of the switch; and a humidifier connected between the anode gas output and anode gas input of the fuel cel
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