Fuel cell module
AssigneeHonda Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorsTetsuya Ogawa, Keiji Tsukamoto, Go Muto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fuel cell module includes a fuel cell stack formed by stacking a plurality of fuel cells for generating electricity by electrochemical reactions of a fuel gas and an oxygen-containing gas, a reformer for reforming a mixed gas of a raw fuel and water vapor, an evaporator for supplying water vapor to the reformer, a heat exchanger for raising the temperature of the oxygen-containing gas by heat exchange with a combustion gas, an exhaust gas combustor for producing the combustion gas, and a start-up combustor for producing the combustion gas. The exhaust gas combustor is provided integrally in the heat exchanger. The start-up combustor is provided adjacent to one end of the heat exchanger.
Claims4
A fuel cell module comprising:
- a fuel cell stack formed by stacking a plurality of fuel cells for generating electricity by electrochemical reactions of a fuel gas and an oxygen-containing gas;
- a reformer for reforming a mixed gas of a raw fuel chiefly containing hydrocarbon and water vapor to produce the fuel gas supplied to the fuel cell stack;
- an evaporator for evaporating water, and supplying water vapor to the reformer;
- a heat exchanger for raising the temperature of the oxygen-containing gas by heat exchange with a combustion gas, and supplying the oxygen-containing gas to the fuel cell stack;
- an exhaust gas combustor for combusting the fuel gas discharged from the fuel cell stack as a fuel exhaust gas and the oxygen-containing gas discharged from the fuel cell stack as an oxygen-containing exhaust gas to produce the combustion gas;
- and
- a start-up combustor for combusting the raw fuel and the oxygen-containing gas to produce the combustion gas,
- wherein the exhaust gas combustor is provided integrally in the heat exchanger;
- the start-up combustor is provided adjacent to one end of the heat exchanger, and the start-up combustor has a coolant channel configured to allow the oxygen-containing gas to flow therethrough to cool the start-up combustor before the oxygen-containing gas is supplied to the heat exchanger,
- the reformer is provided adjacent to another end of the heat exchanger,
- a wall is provided between the reformer and the heat exchanger;
- and
- an opening is formed in the wall for supplying the combustion gas from the heat exchanger to the reformer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.