Gas separation: apparatus – Solid sorbent apparatus – With means regenerating solid sorbent
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-08
2003-09-09
Smith, Duane (Department: 1724)
Gas separation: apparatus
Solid sorbent apparatus
With means regenerating solid sorbent
C096S126000, C206S000700, C165S138000, C165S179000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06616738
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present invention is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-174483, which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hydrogen storage and release apparatus using relatively low temperature heat gas generated from a micro gas turbine or the like in which storage and release of hydrogen can be performed efficiently.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, attention has been paid to a micro gas turbine electric power plant as a distributed electric source capable of generating electric power efficiently and capable of reducing the system size. The plant uses natural gas or biogas as fuel and the fuel is burned to operate a small-sized gas turbine to thereby generate electric power. However, the energy efficiency in the plant is not sufficiently high. A large amount of energy is lost as waste heat into exhaust gas. Therefore, a method for efficient use of the waste heat has been researched and a system of obtaining hot water from such waste heat has been proposed. However, the range of use of hot water or the like is limited and the whole amount of the hot water cannot be always used. Therefore efficient use of the waste heat is not sufficient and energy efficiency carried out by the whole plant has not been yet improved sufficiently.
Although the field of the application is different from the field of micro gas turbine, the Applicant of the present application has developed systems in which high-temperature waste heat or the like generated from a factory or the like is used as a driving source, and hydrogen storage alloys in combination with coolants are used for storing or releasing hydrogen to thereby make it possible to perform storage of hydrogen, purification of hydrogen, air-conditioning, refrigeration, heat migration, etc. When, for example, this system is applied to an air-conditioner, a high-temperature-side hydrogen storage alloy and a low-temperature-side hydrogen storage alloy are provided so that hydrogen can move between the two alloys. Further, high-temperature and high-pressure steam is obtained from waste heat and used as a heat medium to heat the high-temperature-side hydrogen storage alloy. The hydrogen storage alloy releases stored hydrogen when it is heated and then the released hydrogen is stored into the low-temperature-side hydrogen storage alloy. After that, when the high-temperature-side hydrogen storage alloy is cooled so as to generate hydrogen suction force, hydrogen is released from the low-temperature-side hydrogen storage alloy and stored into the high-temperature-side hydrogen storage alloy. On this occasion, cold heat is generated in the low-temperature-side hydrogen storage alloy. Hence, the cold heat is used as a heat source for air-conditioning. In this method, improvement in energy-utilizing efficiency can be attained because an air-conditioning output can be obtained by use of waste heat. Hence, if such air-conditioning or the like can be performed by the aforementioned system by use of waste heat discharged from the aforementioned micro gas turbine, total energy efficiency is improved greatly.
However, since this system uses exhaust gas discharged from a micro gas turbine in which the exhaust gas temperature is low, high-temperature and high-pressure steam cannot be obtained from the exhaust gas when the gas temperature is not sufficiently high. When the temperature of the steam is low, the hydrogen storage alloy cannot be heated sufficiently. As a result, hydrogen cannot be released securely. Hence, such the system cannot be operated well.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made by taking the aforementioned circumstances into consideration and has an object to provide a hydrogen storage and release apparatus in which thermal energy is obtained efficiently from a relatively low temperature heat gas so that the thermal energy can be used as a driving source to make hydrogen stored and released by means of a hydrogen storage alloy.
That is, in order to solve the above problem, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hydrogen storage and release apparatus comprising: a heat exchanging portion including hydrogen storage alloy containers each containing a hydrogen storage alloy for storing and releasing hydrogen; a heat exchanger body in which the heat exchanging portion is received, and into which a heat gas or coolant is introduced to perform heat exchange with the heat exchanging portion, and from which the heat gas or coolant is discharged after heat exchange; and a hydrogen-travelling passage connected to the hydrogen storage alloy containers so that hydrogen can move to the hydrogen storage alloy containers, the heat exchanging portion being set in such a manner that the heat exchanging efficiency on the heat gas discharge side of the heat exchanging portion is made higher continuously or stepwise than that on the heat gas introduction side of the heat exchanging portion.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the hydrogen storage and release apparatus as defined in the first aspect, preferably, the heat exchanging efficiency of the heat exchanging portion is adjusted by fins provided on a part or on the whole of an outer surface of the hydrogen storage alloy containers.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the hydrogen storage and release apparatus as defined in the first or second aspect, preferably, the hydrogen storage alloy containers are constituted by numbers of pipe bodies each containing a hydrogen storage alloy in its inside so as to be aerated, the numbers of pipe bodies being arranged in parallel so that gaps are formed among the pipe bodies, the heat exchanging portion being configured so that the heat gas passes through the gaps along a direction crossing a longitudinal direction of the pipe bodies.
According to a forth aspect of the present invention, in the hydrogen storage and release apparatus as defined in any one of the first through third aspects, preferably, the heat gas is a exhaust gas generated by combustion of fuel in a micro gas turbine.
According to the present invention, heat gas is used as a driving source. Exhaust gas of a micro gas turbine is a typical example of a source generating such heat gas. However, the source generating such heat gas according to the present invention is not limited thereto. The present invention may be applied to various kinds of generating sources. The present invention is originally based on the assumption that it is difficult to obtain high-temperature and high-pressure steam from the heat gas and the heat gas the temperature of which is relatively low is used. The temperature of the heat gas is not limited specifically to the relatively low one and higher-temperature heat gas may be also used. That is, the present invention provides a hydrogen storage and release apparatus which can be driven even by relatively low temperature heat gas, but the condition that the temperature of the heat gas is low is not the requirement of the present invention.
In the present invention, a hydrogen storage alloy is required for storing and releasing hydrogen. The hydrogen storage alloy is not limited to a specific kind of alloy and any suitable alloy maybe selected as the hydrogen storage alloy. Incidentally, in a system in which the hydrogen storage and release apparatus according to the present invention is disposed on the high temperature side and used in pair with a hydrogen storage and release apparatus disposed on the low temperature side, it is preferable to consider the heating temperature on the high temperature side and the temperature to be used on the low temperature side when hydrogen storage alloys are selected on the high and low temperature sides respectively.
These hydrogen storage alloys are contained in alloy containers in a condition that hydrogen can be stored and released. The storage and release of hydrogen can be achieved when an aeration material i
Iwamoto Takashi
Murai Masamitsu
Noie Kazuo
Shimizu Yutaka
Lawrence Frank M.
Smith Duane
The Japan Steel Works Ltd.
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