PEM fuel cell
AssigneeAVL List GmbH
InventorsJános Kancsár, Christoph Kügele, Stefan Jakubek
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus is provided for conditioning at least one process gas which is supplied to at least one electrochemical converter, via at least one process gas supply. The process gas supply has a humidifying unit configured and arranged to introduce a humidifying agent into the process gas. Water in a supercritical state can be introduced as the humidifying agent.
Claims12
A method for conditioning at least one process gas containing oxygen or hydrogen, which is supplied to a fuel cell, the method including the following steps:
- humidifying the at least one process gas by a humidifying agent, characterized in that water in a supercritical state is used as the humidifying agent, wherein an isenthalpic relaxation of the water in the supercritical state takes place in the at least one process gas, and wherein the supercritical water avoids the region of wet vapor and transitions directly into a gas phase, in order to form no liquid water during relaxation of the supercritical water.
An apparatus for conditioning at least one process gas containing oxygen or hydrogen which is supplied to at least one fuel cell, the apparatus comprising:
- at least one process gas supply including a humidifying unit configured and arranged to introduce a humidifying agent into the at least one process gas, wherein the humidfying agent is water in a supercritical state, wherein the supercritical water introduced into the process gas avoids the region of wet vapor by means of an isenthalpic relaxation and transitions directly into the gas phase, in order to form no liquid water during relaxation.
An energy conversion unit for generating electrical energy from a hydrogen-containing first process gas and an oxygen-containing second process gas in at least one fuel cell, the energy conversion unit comprising:
- a first process gas supply configured and arranged to supply the first process gas to the at least one fuel cell;
- and
- a second process gas supply configured and arranged to supply the second process gas to the at least one fuel cell;
- and
- a humidifying unit configured to introduce water in a supercritical state into at least one of the first and second process gases.
The method of 3, wherein the substantially isenthalpic throttle is an injector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.