Reformer that determines a combustion state of an included combustion section and a fuel cell system incorporating the same
AssigneeToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKazumasa Takada, Norihiko Toyonaga
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A controller for a reformer that: changes the supply quantity of at least either one of combustible gas and combustion oxidizing gas supplied to a combustion section; detects a change which is caused in the combustion state of the combustion section as a result of a change of the supply quantity; and checks the combustion state which arose at the combustion section before the change based on the previously detected detection result. Thus, a gone-out state of the combustion section can be reliably judged with a low cost device, and the combustion state of the combustion section in the reformer of a fuel cell system can be adjusted to an optimum combustion state.
Claims12
A reformer comprising:
- a reforming section for generating reformed gas by reforming fuel;
- a combustion section for burning combustible gas with combustion oxidizing gas to heat the reforming section with resultant combustion gas;
- combustible gas supply means for supplying the combustible gas to the combustion section;
- combustion oxidizing gas supply means for supplying the combustion oxidizing gas to the combustion section;
- combustion state detecting means for detecting a combustion state of the combustion section;
- and
- a controller programmed to change a supply quantity of at least one of the combustible gas supplied by the combustible gas supply means to the combustion section and the combustion oxidizing gas supplied by the combustion oxidizing gas supply means to the combustion section so as to judge whether or not the combustion section is likely to go out by making reference to a detection result from the combustion state detecting means, the detection result being a temperature of the combustion section, and further programmed to check the combustion state which existed at the combustion section before making the change in the supply quantity of the at least one of the combustible gas and the combustion oxidizing gas, based on a result of the judgment whether or not the combustion section is likely to go out.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.