Back to results
US 6,787,256 B2Granted
Humidification apparatus for fuel cells
AssigneeDaikin Industries, Ltd.
InventorsNobuki Matsui, Shuji Ikegami, Yasunori Okamoto, Kazuo Yonemoto
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeDaikin Industries, Ltd.
InventorsNobuki Matsui, Shuji Ikegami, Yasunori Okamoto, Kazuo Yonemoto
Estimating the term…
When humidifying, almost to water vapor saturation, reformed gas that is supplied to a hydrogen electrode of a solid polymer type fuel cell (1) and air that is supplied to an oxygen electrode of the fuel cell (1), heating for obtaining water vapor to establish such saturation is not required. For the purpose of improving the thermal efficiency of a fuel cell system, water vapor contained in hydrogen electrode exhaust gas exhausted from the hydrogen electrode of the fuel cell (1) is let to penetrate through a water vapor permeable membrane (34), whereas water vapor contained either in air that is introduced into a partial oxidation reformation section (6) or in oxygen electrode exhaust gas exhausted from the oxygen electrode is let to penetrate through the water vapor permeable membrane (34) so that the water vapor is supplied to air that is supplied to the oxygen electrode of the fuel cell (1).
A fuel cell humidification apparatus for a fuel cell (1), said fuel cell (1) having oxygen and hydrogen electrodes between which is interposed a solid polymer electrolyte for producing an electromotive force between said electrodes by supplying hydrogen containing reformed gas reformed in reformation means (4) and oxygen containing gas to said hydrogen electrode and to said oxygen electrode, respectively,
The fuel cell humidification apparatus of 6, 8, 11, or 13,
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.