Burner evaporator for a fuel cell system
AssigneeSerenergy A/S
InventorsAnders Risum Korsgaard, Mads Bang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fuel cell system comprising a fuel cell stack, an evaporator for evaporating a mixture of methanol and water to be forwarded through a catalytic reformer for producing portions of free hydrogen. The fuel cell stack being composed of a number of proton exchange membrane fuel cells each featuring electrodes in form of an anode and a cathode for delivering an electric current. The liquid fuel using a. pre-evaporator, which. partly evaporates the fuel, followed by a. nozzle, which atomizes the fuel into a fine mist, before being passed to the final evaporation zone. This configuration ensures that liquid fuel for producing thermal, neat is converted into a form that facilitates a burner to achieve a quick heating up of the fuel, cell system into production mode.
Claims19
A fuel cell system, comprising:
- a fuel cell stack comprising a plurality of proton exchange membrane fuel cells each featuring electrodes in the form of an anode and a cathode for delivering an electric current, wherein a reaction of free hydrogen into ionic form with contact to the anode being proportional to a flow of electric current between the electrodes;
- a catalytic reformer;
- an evaporator for evaporating a mixture of methanol and water to be fed through the catalytic reformer for producing portions of free hydrogen;
- a fluid fuel burner for providing heat for heating the system to a temperature level at which the fuel cell system can enter a state of steady current production;
- a burner fuel evaporator for heating of liquid fuel for the burner, the burner fuel evaporator being arranged in proximity to the burner in such a way that the burner fuel evaporator absorbs energy in the form of thermal heat from the burner in order to accelerate evaporation of liquid fuel into a fine mist of fuel to be delivered to the burner for producing thermal heat, wherein the burner fuel evaporator comprises:
- a first section forming a pre-evaporator, the pre-evaporator having a plurality of chambers, each chamber having a gap to pass the liquid fuel therethrough to partly evaporate the liquid fuel into drops, droplets and mist, the first section having a pressure nozzle for two-phase atomization of the liquid fuel into a second section having a lower pressure, the second section providing a path for further heating and stabilizing the liquid fuel into a gas phase before being delivered to the burner.
A fuel cell system, comprising:
- a fuel cell stack comprising a plurality of proton exchange membrane fuel cells, each fuel cell comprising an anode and a cathode to deliver an electric current, wherein a reaction of free hydrogen into ionic form when contacting the anode is proportional to a flow of electric current between the anode and cathode;
- a catalytic reformer;
- an evaporator to evaporate a mixture of methanol and water to be fed through the catalytic reformer as a fuel to produce portions of free hydrogen;
- a fuel burner to heat the system to a temperature level at which the fuel cell system can enter a state of steady current production;
- a burner fuel evaporator to heat the liquid fuel for the burner, the burner fuel evaporator being arranged in proximity to the burner so that the burner fuel evaporator absorbs thermal heat from the burner in order to accelerate evaporation of liquid fuel into a mist of fuel, the mist of fuel being delivered to the burner for producing heat, the burner fuel evaporator including a vertically oriented cavity and a plurality of droplet supporting edges exposed within the cavity, the droplet supporting edges being arranged and configured to collect drops of the liquid fuel passing through the cavity, wherein the drops of liquid fuel drip from the droplet supporting edges under the force of gravity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.