Chemistry: electrical current producing apparatus – product – and – With pressure equalizing means for liquid immersion operation
Reexamination Certificate
2001-10-19
2004-07-20
Bell, Bruce F. (Department: 1746)
Chemistry: electrical current producing apparatus, product, and
With pressure equalizing means for liquid immersion operation
C429S006000, C429S010000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06764785
ABSTRACT:
RELATED APPLICATION
This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/930,557, entitled “POWER SYSTEM INCLUDING HEAT REMOVAL UNIT FOR PROVIDING BACKUP POWER TO ONE OR MORE LOADS,” filed Aug. 15, 2001; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/930,394, entitled “METAL FUEL CELL SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING BACKUP POWER TO ONE OR MORE LOADS,” filed Aug. 15, 2001; U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/318,685, entitled “ULTRA-LONG DURATION BACKUP FOR CRITICAL APPLICATIONS USING ZINC/AIR REGENERATIVE FUEL CELLS,” filed Sep. 10, 2001; U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/328,838, entitled “ULTRA-LONG DURATION BACKUP FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS APPLICATIONS USING ZINC/AIR REGENERATIVE FUEL CELLS,” filed Oct. 11, 2001, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/973,490, entitled “METHODS OF PRODUCING OXYGEN REDUCTION CATALYST,” filed Oct. 9, 2001; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/060,965, entitled “RECIRCULATING ANODE,” filed on even date herewith; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/072,856, entitled “MANIFOLD FOR FUEL CELL SYSTEM,” filed on even date herewith; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/066,544, entitled “FUEL CELL SYSTEM,” filed on even date herewith; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 050,901, entitled “POLYMER COMPOSITES, CATHODES, AND SYSTEMS THEREOF,” filed on even date herewith. Each of these applications is hereby fully incorporated by reference herein as though set forth in full.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to power supplies for providing primary and/or auxiliary/backup power to electrical equipment, and, more specifically, to power supply systems based on metal- or hydrogen-fuel cells.
RELATED ART
A great deal of electronic equipment in the modern world relies upon high-quality, reliable electrical power. Such equipment, each a load, includes, for example and without limitation, lawn & garden equipment; radios; telephone; targeting equipment; battery rechargers; laptops; communications devices; sensors; night vision equipment; camping equipment (including without limitation, stoves, lanterns, lights, and the like); lights; vehicles (including without limitation, cars, recreational vehicles, trucks, boats, ferries, motorcycles, motorized scooters, forklifts, golf carts, lawnmowers, industrial carts, passenger—carts (airport), luggage handling equipment (airports), airplanes, lighter than air crafts (e.g., blimps, dirigibles, and the like), hovercrafts, trains (e.g., locomotives, and the like), and submarines (manned and unmanned); torpedoes; security systems; electrical energy storage devices for renewable energy sources (e.g., solar-based, tidal-based, hydro-based, wind-based, and the like); many other types of electrical devices, equipment for which a primary and/or backup power source is necessary or desirable to enable the equipment to function for its intended purpose, military-usable variants of above, and the like; and suitable combinations of any two or more thereof. Over the past decade, as the digital age has taken hold, there has been an explosive growth in the deployment of such equipment.
For many applications of such equipment, power outages can lead to losses of use or data, equipment damage, missed deadlines, and/or lost productivity, and therefore must be avoided. At the same time, the reliability of the traditional power generation, transmission, and distribution network has fallen in some countries due in part to the increased demands which have been placed on this network throughout the world. The result is that power grid-independent primary and/or auxiliary/backup power supplies have emerged as a means for providing primary and/or backup power to such equipment.
SUMMARY
The invention provides a fuel cell system for providing primary and/or auxiliary/backup power (with or without regeneration unit on board, and with or without capability of refueling from a refueling station) to one or more loads selected from the group comprising: lawn & garden equipment; radios; telephone; targeting equipment; battery rechargers; laptops; communications devices; sensors; night vision equipment; camping equipment (including without limitation, stoves, lanterns, lights, and the like); lights; vehicles (including without limitation, cars, recreational vehicles, trucks, boats, ferries, motorcycles, motorized scooters, forklifts, golf carts, lawnmowers, industrial carts, passenger carts (airport), luggage handling equipment (airports), airplanes, lighter than air crafts (e.g., blimps, dirigibles, and the like), hovercrafts, trains (e.g., locomotives, and the like), and submarines (manned and unmanned); torpedoes; security systems; electrical energy storage devices for renewable energy sources (e.g., solar-based, tidal-based, hydro-based, wind-based, and the like); many other types of electrical devices, equipment for which a primary and/or backup power source is necessary or desirable to enable the equipment to function for its intended purpose, military-usable variants of above, and the like; and suitable combinations of any two or more thereof.
The fuel cell system provides primary and/or auxiliary/backup power to the one or more loads. For primary power, the fuel cell system provides power upon sensing a demand for power from the one or more loads. For back/auxiliary power, the fuel cell system provides power upon the occurrence of a power outage condition, defined to include a disruption or discontinuation in the delivery of system-external primary power (i.e., power from a primary source, namely, a source other than the fuel cell system) to the one or more loads. The system comprises one or more fuel cells, each comprising a power source and a fuel storage unit, that deliver primary and/or auxiliary/backup power to the one or more loads upon the occurrence of a power outage condition. In one aspect, the invention further provides that each fuel cell can optionally further comprise a regeneration unit to regenerate the reactants of the fuel from the reaction products, and/or a reaction product storage unit to store the reaction products from the fuel cell, and/or a second reactant storage unit to store the second reactants. The one or more fuel cells can be metal fuel cells (including without limitation zinc fuel cells, aluminum fuel cells, lithium fuel cells, sodium fuel cells, magnesium fuel cells, iron fuel cells, and the like), hydrogen fuel cells, methanol fuel cells, ethanol fuel cells, and/or any other fuel cells that have the same purpose.
In a further embodiment, the fuel cell useful in the practice of the invention system comprises a metal fuel cell. In another aspect, a metal fuel cell system for providing primary and/or auxiliary/backup power to one or more loads selected from the previously described group has one, or any suitable combination of two or more, of the following properties: the system can be configured to not utilize or produce significant quantities of flammable fuel or product, respectively; the system can provide primary and/or auxiliary/backup power to the one or more loads selected from the previously-described group for an amount of time limited only by the amount of fuel present (e.g., in the range(s) from about 0.01 hours to about 10,000 hours or more); the system can be configured to have an energy density in the range(s) of about 35 Watt-hours per kilogram of combined fuel and electrolyte added to about 400 Watt-hours per kilogram of combined fuel and electrolyte added; the system can further comprise an energy requirement, and can be configured such that the combined volume of fuel and electrolyte added to the system is in the range(s) from about 0.0028 L per Watt-hour of the system's energy requirement to about 0.025 L per Watt-hour of the system's energy requirement; the system can be configured to have a fuel storage unit that can store fuel at an internal pressure in the range(s) from about −5 pounds per square inch (psi) gauge pressure to about 200 psi gauge pressure; the system can be configured to hold a pre-charge of fuel in the power producing cell(s) of the power source of
Colborn Jeffrey A.
Smedley Stuart I.
Howrey Simon Arnold & White , LLP
Metallic Power, Inc.
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