Hybrid hydrogen fuel cell combustor power system
AssigneeCaterpillar Inc.
InventorsDavid Andrew Pierpont, David M. Ginter
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fuel cell electrical power generation system is described herein. The system uses a combustor to increase the pressure and temperature of exhaust gases from a fuel cell stack of the system. The combustor uses hydrogen from a hydrogen supply to provide fuel to the combustor. The increased temperature/pressure of the exhaust gases post combustion are used to rotate a turbine, which in turn rotates a compressor of a turbocharger. The compressor compresses incoming air to increase the power output and/or the efficiency of the system. An ebooster can be used in low load conditions, such as during a startup or during at time in which the electrical loading on the fuel cells is relatively low.
Claims9
A fuel cell system, the system comprising:
- one or more hydrogen fuel cells electrically connected to an electrical load, wherein the hydrogen fuel cells are configured to provide electrical power to the electrical load;
- a turbocharger comprising a compressor and a turbine, wherein the compressor is configured to compress air into compressed air, and the turbine is configured to rotate the compressor to compress the air;
- an air intake manifold configured to receive the compressed air and introduce the compressed air into a cathode side of the one or more hydrogen fuel cells;
- a hydrogen intake manifold configured to receive hydrogen from a hydrogen supply and supply the hydrogen to an anode side of the one or more hydrogen fuel cells;
- an exhaust manifold configured to receive exhaust gases, at a first temperature and a first pressure, from the cathode side of the one or more hydrogen fuel cells;
- and
- a combustor configured to generate a turbine input gas having at a second pressure greater than the first pressure and a second temperature greater than the first pressure and the first temperature by:
- receiving the exhaust gases from the exhaust manifold;
- receiving combustor hydrogen from the hydrogen supply;
- and
- combusting the exhaust gases with the combustor hydrogen, wherein the turbine input gas is fed to the turbine to rotate a shaft connecting the turbine to the compressor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.