JP3138118B2 - Package type fuel cell power generator - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a packaged fuel cell power generator having a ventilation device inside a package and a cooling device for preventing local overheating.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 2 is an elevational view schematically showing a conventional structure of a package type fuel cell power generator. In the figure,
In a package 1, a fuel cell main body 2 composed of a stack of unit cells, a fuel reformer 3 for supplying a hydrogen-rich fuel gas to the fuel cell main body 2, a fuel cell main body 2 and a fuel reformer 3 are provided. The main equipment of a power generating apparatus including an air blower 4 connected to a reforming burner (not shown) through an air supply pipe 5 to supply reaction air and combustion air is collectively accommodated.
Further, a ventilation device comprising a ventilation fan 6 and an outside air intake louver 7 is provided on the mutually facing side wall surfaces of the package 1, and the inside of the package due to heat dissipation from the fuel cell body 2 and the fuel reformer 3 is provided. The inside of the package 1 is forcibly ventilated so as to suppress the temperature rise of the air.

Further, an intake port 4A of the air blower 4 opens to the outside of the package 1 to inhale outside air, and supplies the sucked air as reaction air to the fuel cell main body 2 to directly react with fuel gas. While generating power, the fuel is supplied to a reforming burner (not shown) of the fuel reformer 3 as supporting air. The off-gas which has been reacted in the fuel cell body and the combustion exhaust gas from the fuel reformer burner are packaged via the exhaust stack 8.
Exhausted to the outside of the device, recovering exhaust heat or fuel reformer bar
The remaining hydrogen is burned in the furnace.

In the package type fuel cell power generator constructed as described above, the fuel cell body 2 is a phosphoric acid type fuel cell which uses phosphoric acid as an electrolyte and reacts with hydrogen and oxygen to generate power. The reaction temperature is about 200 ° C
And the temperature of the inner wall surface reaches 180 ° C. Further, the fuel reformer 3 that heats methane together with steam to convert it into a hydrogen-rich reformed gas has a reaction temperature of about 700 °.
c, and the temperature of the inner wall reaches several hundred degrees Celsius.
Therefore, the fuel cell body 2 and the fuel reformer 3 maintain the above reaction temperature to stably maintain an efficient operation state, and to suppress an excessive rise in temperature in the package due to heat radiation. The outer surfaces of the fuel cell main body and the fuel reformer are covered with a thick heat insulating material, and the temperature rise in the package due to heat dissipation from the outer surfaces is controlled by a ventilation device including a ventilation fan 6 and an outside air suction chamber 7. The air in the package is cooled by forced ventilation.

The package 1 contains an electric device such as a motor for an air blower, a speed control device 9 for the air blower, detection sensors for temperature, pressure, flow rate, and the like, and control devices therefor. It is required that the inside of the package be uniformly maintained at a predetermined ambient temperature in order to prevent the functions and the life characteristics from being lowered by exposing them to a high temperature. However, stagnation of air on the leeward side of the storage equipment cannot be avoided by using only the above-described ventilation device, and heat is radiated from the equipment in this part to generate a pool of heated air, and the temperature of the outer surface of the equipment in this part is locally reduced. And the radiant heat from the locally overheated portion has a problem in that the electrical device has a thermal effect. In order to avoid these problems, a conventional cooling air blower 11 and its speed control device 13 and an air duct 12 for guiding the discharge air from the cooling air blower 11 to a hot air reservoir and discharging the same are provided in the package 1. It is known that a local cooling device 10 is provided so that the superheated air in the hot air pool is diffused by the discharged cooling air, and is discharged to the outside of the package together with ventilation.

[0006]

In the conventional package-type fuel cell power generator constructed as described above, the amount of reaction air and fuel gas required in proportion to the amount of power generated by the fuel cell body 2 is reduced. In order to increase the number of air blowers, a speed controller 9 is provided in the air blower 4 for supplying the air, and the speed of the air blower 4 is controlled in proportion to the amount of power generation, thereby controlling the air discharge amount in proportion to the amount of power generation. Have been. In addition, the amount of heat dissipated in the package 1 increases in proportion to the amount of power generation,
Since the temperature of the hot air reservoir rises in proportion to this, the cooling air blower 11 of the local cooling device 10 is also provided with a speed control device 13 to control the amount of the local cooling air in proportion to the amount of power generation and to make a package. In addition to equalizing the internal temperature, the driving power of the cooling air blower 11 is reduced by reducing the rotation speed of the cooling air blower 11 in a light load state. However, two speed controllers 9 and 13 are required to save the power of the local cooling device 10, which leads to an increase in the size of the package 1 for accommodating them, and also causes an increase in the size of the package. There is a problem that the production cost of the di-type fuel cell power generator is increased.

An object of the present invention is to simplify the configuration of a local cooling device without impairing the local cooling function and its power saving function.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a fuel cell main body and a fuel reformer, and the fuel cell main body and the fuel reformer are connected via an air supply pipe. A package for collectively accommodating main equipment of a power generation apparatus including an air blower for supplying reaction air and combustion air connected thereto is provided with a ventilation device including a ventilation fan provided on a side wall thereof and an outside air suction chamber. A package connected to a discharge side of the air blower.
A local cooling device that discharges cooling air to a hot air reservoir in the nozzle is provided.

Further, it is assumed that the local cooling device comprises a branch air supply line formed by branching off from the air supply line. Further, the air blower is provided with a variable speed control device for controlling the number of revolutions in proportion to the power generation amount of the fuel cell main body, and has an air discharge amount for branching and supplying cooling air to the local cooling device.

[0010]

In the structure of the present invention, a package type fuel cell power generator is connected to a fuel cell main body and a fuel reformer via an air supply pipe to discharge an air blower for supplying reaction air and combustion air. Side, and a part of the discharge air of the air blower whose speed is controlled in proportion to the amount of power generation by using a local cooling device that discharges cooling air to the hot air pool in the package. A function of supplying cooling air in an amount proportional to the amount of power generation to the hot air pool around the storage device and diffusing superheated air, which increases in proportion to the amount of power generation, to the ventilator side, using a blower for local cooling and Since the operation can be performed without requiring the speed control device, a function of simplifying the configuration of the local cooling device without impairing the local cooling function and the power saving function can be obtained.

Further, if the local cooling device is constituted by a branch air supply line formed by branching off from the air supply line, the branch air supply line is expanded based on the result of actual measurement of the temperature distribution in the package. By doing so, it is possible to discharge cooling air to an arbitrary hot air reservoir, so that a local cooling device having a simple configuration and excellent local cooling performance can be easily formed.

Further, the air blower is provided with a variable speed control device for controlling the number of revolutions in proportion to the power generation amount of the fuel cell main body, and has an air discharge amount for branching and supplying cooling air to the local cooling device. Thus, the amount of cooling air proportional to the amount of power generation can be supplied to the local cooling device without adversely affecting the amount of reaction air supplied to the fuel cell body and the amount of combustion air supplied to the fuel reformer.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on embodiments. FIG. 1 is an elevational view schematically showing a package type fuel cell power generator according to an embodiment of the present invention. The same components as those in the prior art are denoted by the same reference numerals, and duplicate description is omitted. I do. In the figure, an air blower 4 for supplying reaction air and combustion air to a fuel cell main body 2 and a fuel reformer 3, respectively, is provided in a package 1 through an air supply pipe 5 and the fuel cell main body 2 and a fuel reformer. It is connected to the porcelain 3. The local cooling device 20 includes a plurality of branch air supply pipes 21A, 21B and the like branched from the air supply pipe 5, and the air blowout ports 22 are provided in the hot air pool around the fuel cell body 2 and the fuel reformer 3. It is configured to be open.

In the package-type fuel cell power generator having the local cooling device 20 configured as described above, the inside of the package 1 is ventilated by the ventilator including the ventilation fan 6 and the outside air intake louver 7. When the amount of air discharged from the air blower 4 is controlled by the speed control device 9 in accordance with the amount of power generation, an amount of cooling air proportional to the amount of discharged air is branched off and supplied to the local cooling device 20 to overheat the hot air pool. Since the air diffuses into the package and is discharged to the outside by the ventilation device, the air temperature in the package 1 is equalized, and the thermal influence on the electric equipment such as the speed control device is eliminated. Performance and life characteristics can be maintained.

The air blower 4 has a local cooling device 20.
The amount of cooling air to be branched and discharged may be assumed in advance, and the discharge amount may be increased accordingly, or the control speed by the speed control device 9 may be set to be high corresponding to the amount of cooling air. Thereby, the cooling air blower (11) and its speed control device (13) conventionally required for the local cooling device are eliminated, the configuration of the local cooling device 20 is simplified, and the size of the package 1 is reduced accordingly. And package
The cost of the fuel cell power generation device can be reduced, and the flow rate of the cooling air is controlled in proportion to the amount of power generation, thereby saving power and obtaining a package fuel cell power generation device with high heat utilization efficiency. be able to.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, a package type fuel cell power generator is connected to a fuel cell body and a fuel reformer via an air supply line to supply reaction air and combustion air. Connected to the discharge side of the air blower,
A local cooling device comprising a branch air supply pipe for discharging cooling air to a hot air reservoir in the tank is provided. As a result, a part of the discharge air from the air blower, whose speed is controlled in proportion to the amount of power generation, is used to supply cooling air in proportion to the amount of power generation to the hot air pool around the storage device, The increased superheated air can be diffused to the ventilation device side, so that the conventionally required blower for local cooling and its speed control device can be eliminated, which impairs the local cooling function and its power saving function. A package-type fuel cell power generation device having a local cooling device with a simplified configuration without any problem can be economically and advantageously provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an elevational view schematically showing a package type fuel cell power generator according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an elevational view schematically showing a conventional structure of a package type fuel cell power generator.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Package 2 Fuel cell main body 3 Fuel reformer 4 Air blower 5 Air supply line 6 Ventilation fan 7 Outside air intake louver 8 Exhaust pipe 9 Speed control device 10 Local cooling device 11 Cooling air blower 12 Air duct 13 Speed Control device 20 Local cooling device 21A Branch air supply line 22 Cooling air outlet

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-4-75263 (JP, A) JP-A-5-290868 (JP, A) JP-A-64-30175 (JP, A) JP-A-6-30 203859 (JP, A) JP-A-58-201266 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01M 8/04 H01M 8/06

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A power generation apparatus including a fuel cell main body and a fuel reformer, and an air blower connected to the fuel cell main body and the fuel reformer via an air supply pipe to supply reaction air and combustion air. A package for accommodating the main equipment of the present invention, which is provided with a ventilation device provided on a side wall of the package and comprising a ventilation fan and an outside air intake louver, wherein the package is connected to the discharge side of the air blower. A package-type fuel cell power generator comprising a local cooling device for discharging cooling air into a hot air reservoir in the fuel cell. 2. The package type fuel cell power generator according to claim 1, wherein the local cooling device comprises a branch air supply line formed by branching off from the air supply line. 3. An air blower comprising a variable speed control device for controlling a rotation speed in proportion to a power generation amount of a fuel cell main body, and having an air discharge amount for branching and supplying cooling air to a local cooling device. The package-type fuel cell power generator according to claim 1, wherein