JP3844227B2 - Hydrogen production equipment - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a hydrogen production apparatus.
[0002]
[Prior art]
A hydrogen production apparatus is known in which water is supplied into a reaction chamber containing reactive particles containing hydrocarbons or carbon, and the reaction chamber is heated to react the reactive particles with water to generate hydrogen gas.
[0003]
On the other hand, an apparatus for generating a desired gas by reacting a reactive substance and a gas at a high temperature by abruptly compressing a gas in a tube serving as a reaction chamber containing a predetermined reactive substance with a shock wave is disclosed in US Pat. No. 2,832,666. Is disclosed. This known apparatus has a plurality of pipes parallel to a rotation axis as a reactor, and a reactive substance as a raw material is supplied to one pipe from one end side, and rotates around the rotation axis. When the pipe body is in a predetermined position, a high-pressure gas is supplied into the pipe body to generate a shock wave, and the shock wave compresses and compresses the gas to a high temperature, and the reactive substance reacts with the gas to generate a desired gas. . In the meantime, the other tubes are fed with reactive substances for the next gas production.
[0004]
In such a device, each of the plurality of pipes is provided with an opening / closing valve at both ends so as to perform a predetermined process corresponding to the rotational position of the rotating shaft, and has a control device for opening and closing the valve. Furthermore, it has a mechanism for supplying a high-pressure gas and a reactive substance, taking out a generated gas, and exhausting each pipe one after another while allowing a plurality of pipes to rotate around the rotation axis.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the known apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 2,832,666, a high-pressure gas is injected into a tube containing a reactive substance together with air to generate a shock wave, so the density of air is not so high. It is difficult to bring the tube into an ultra-high temperature state by impact compression due to. Also, it is not clear how to configure the device to generate hydrogen gas.
[0006]
Furthermore, many tubes and their respective open / close valves are required, a device for rotating them is required, the opening / closing operation must be performed in accordance with the rotational position, and the tube is rotated. Due to the fact that raw materials and high-pressure gas must be supplied and the generated gas must be taken out and exhausted while allowing, the mechanism becomes complicated and large in size, which leads to an increase in the cost of the apparatus and the generated gas.
[0007]
In view of such circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a hydrogen production apparatus that is simple in structure and can be reduced in size, and that can easily achieve an ultra-high temperature state by shock compression using a shock wave to produce hydrogen. To do.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The hydrogen production apparatus according to the present invention generates a hydrogen-containing gas by reacting the reactive particles with the water vapor by heating a mixture of the reactive particles containing hydrocarbon or carbon and the water vapor to a high temperature. And hydrogen is separated from the hydrogen-containing gas.
[0009]
In such a hydrogen production apparatus, in order to shock compress the mixture of reactive particles and water vapor, a compression chamber containing the mixture, and a high-density gas higher in density than water vapor instead of at least part of the water vapor in the compression chamber A high-density gas supply means for supplying gas to the compression chamber, a reactive particle supply means for supplying reactive particles into the compression chamber, and a high-pressure steam or water are intermittently supplied into the compression chamber to generate shock waves. Shock wave generating means for supplying the high-pressure steam or water to the compression chamber when the high-density gas supply means replaces at least a portion of the water vapor in the compression chamber with high-density gas. Features.
[0010]
In the present invention having such a configuration, when at least a part of the water vapor in the compression chamber is replaced with the high-density gas by the high-density gas supply means, the compression chamber is densified. When high-pressure steam or water is supplied into the room by the shock wave generating means, the compression chamber is shock-compressed by the shock wave and easily enters an ultra-high temperature state. As a result, the reactive particles in the mixture are reacted with water vapor to generate a hydrogen-containing gas.
[0011]
In the present invention, the high-density gas is desirably inert with respect to a hydrogen production reaction between reactive particles and water vapor, and is desirably argon or carbon dioxide, for example.
[0012]
The compression chamber is connected to decompression means for decompressing the compression chamber, and the high-density gas supply means supplies the high-density gas to the compression chamber when decompressed by the decompression means. High-density gas replacement is easy, and total replacement is also possible.
[0013]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0014]
1 has a converging tube 2 having a large diameter at the upper end, a small diameter at the lower end, and a converging portion 2A in the middle, and the internal space of the converging tube 2 serves as a compression chamber as a reaction chamber. Forming. The converging tube 2 has a flange portion 2B projecting in the radial direction at the upper end, and a nozzle attachment body 3 is attached thereto by a bolt (not shown) or the like. The mounting body 3 is provided with a plurality of nozzles 4 so that the intervals between the nozzles 4 are equal to each other and distributed over the converging tube. The plurality of nozzles 4 are connected to a common intermittent injection pump 5. The intermittent injection pump 5 receives supply of high-pressure steam from a waste heat boiler, which will be described later, and injects the high-pressure steam from the nozzle 4 into the converging pipe 2, that is, into the compression chamber as a reaction chamber at a predetermined moment.
[0015]
A gas outlet 6 and an exhaust port 7 are formed at the lower end of the converging pipe 2, and control valves 8 and 9 that are opened at a predetermined time are provided here. Furthermore, a reactive particle supply port 10 for supplying reactive particles into the converging tube 2 at a position slightly above the gas outlet 6 and the exhaust port 7, and hydrogen production of the reactive particles and water vapor. A high-density gas supply port 11 for supplying argon (Ar), which is a high-density gas inert to the reaction, into the converging tube 2 is formed. The high-density gas supply port 11 is provided with a control valve 12 that is opened at a predetermined time.
[0016]
1 is connected to various apparatuses for producing hydrogen gas as shown in FIG.
[0017]
The intermittent injection pump 5 of the reactor 1 is connected to the waste heat boiler 15 so as to receive high-pressure steam from the waste heat boiler 15 of a large thermal process facility 14 such as a waste incinerator.
[0018]
Next, in order to supply Ar into the converging tube 2, an argon storage tank 13 that stores Ar is connected to the high-density gas supply port 11.
[0019]
Connected to the reactive particle supply port 10 is a feeder 17 that supplies waste plastic as reactive particles after being separated from other substances and then crushed and pulverized into waste plastic powder, which is then supplied via a control valve 16 at a predetermined time. Has been.
[0020]
On the other hand, the gas outlet 6 is connected to a dust remover 18 and a separator (PSA) 19 via a control valve 8. The dust remover 18 is for removing unreacted reactive particles and the like from the hydrogen-containing gas, and is connected to the feeder 17 in order to return the removed unreacted reactive particles for reuse. The separator 19 is for separating the hydrogen-containing gas into hydrogen gas and CO gas, and taking out them separately, and a pressure vibration adsorption (PSA) apparatus is used. The hydrogen separation is not limited to the pressure vibration adsorption method, and other methods such as membrane separation may be used.
[0021]
The exhaust port 7 is connected to an exhaust pipe 20 through a control valve 9, and discharges water vapor remaining after the reaction.
[0022]
In the apparatus of this embodiment, hydrogen gas is produced in the following manner.
[0023]
(1) First, waste plastic powder as reactive particles is supplied from the reactive particle supply port 10 into the converging tube 2 as a reaction chamber. After the supply of the reactive particles, the control valve 16 of the reactive particle supply port 10 is closed. At this point, the other control valves 8, 9 are still closed. Then, the control valve 9 is once opened. At this time, the control valve 12 is opened, whereby Ar gas is supplied from the high-density gas supply port 11 into the converging tube 2 by the argon storage tank 13 and the converging tube 2. A part of the gas inside is discharged from the exhaust port 7 and replaced with Ar. After this replacement, the control valves 9 and 12 are closed.
[0024]
(2) Next, the intermittent injection pump 5 opens momentarily, and high-pressure steam from the waste heat boiler 12 is injected from the plurality of nozzles 4 as pulse jets. The high-pressure steam sprayed from the plurality of nozzles 4 generates a shock wave. When the shock wave travels toward the lower end of the converging tube 2, the converging tube 2A joins and converges to further increase the pressure. This convergent shock wave travels to the lower end of the converging tube 2 and rapidly compresses water vapor together with reactive particles in the converging tube 2 as a reaction chamber to increase the temperature, for example, reaching 3000 ° K. This causes a reaction, producing hydrogen gas and CO gas. In the present embodiment, as described above, a part of the gas in the converging tube 2 is replaced with argon having a higher density than water vapor, so that the space in the converging tube 2 is densified and shock compression by shock waves is performed. It becomes super high temperature.
[0025]
(3) Next, the control valve 8 is opened, a hydrogen-containing gas in which hydrogen gas and CO gas are mixed is taken out from the gas outlet 6, unreacted reactive particles and the like are removed by the dust remover 18, and the hydrogen-containing gas is contained. The gas is separated into hydrogen gas and CO gas by the separator 19 and taken out.
[0026]
{Circle around (4)} Thereafter, the control valve 8 is closed and the control valve 9 is opened, and water vapor or the like in the converging pipe 2 is exhausted through the exhaust pipe 20 as a residual gas. Thus, one cycle for generating hydrogen gas is completed, and the next cycle is prepared. At this time, almost all of the gas in the converging tube 2 is water vapor. In the present embodiment, hydrogen gas is continuously generated by repeating the above cycle, so that a part of the water vapor in the converging tube 2 is replaced with Ar from the argon storage tank 13.
[0027]
In this embodiment, argon is used as the high-density gas. However, other gas such as CO ₂ may be used as long as it has a higher density than water vapor and is inert in the hydrogen production reaction. Further, in the present embodiment, a part of the water vapor in the compression chamber is replaced with the high-density gas. However, it is preferable to replace all the water vapor in the compression chamber with the high-density gas because the density in the compression chamber is further increased. In this case, it is preferable to supply the high-density gas into the compression chamber after the compression chamber is evacuated with a vacuum pump or the like as decompression means for decompressing the compression chamber.
[0028]
Moreover, as reactive particles, substances containing hydrocarbons or carbon such as powdered coke can be used in addition to waste plastic powder.
[0029]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, in the present invention, since at least a part of the water vapor in the compression chamber is replaced by the high-density gas having a density higher than that of the water vapor by the high-density gas supply means, Can be made extremely hot by shock compression with shock waves. In addition, a shock wave can be generated simply by supplying high-pressure steam instantaneously into the compression chamber containing the reactive particles, thereby generating hydrogen gas. Therefore, the apparatus can be extremely simple and downsized.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a reaction apparatus for a hydrogen production apparatus as one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a hydrogen production apparatus using the reaction apparatus of FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 Reactor 2 Converging tube (compression chamber)
5 Intermittent injection pump (shock wave generating means)
13 Argon storage tank (high density gas supply means)
17 Feeder (reactive particle supply means)

Claims (4)

A mixture of reactive particles containing hydrocarbon or carbon and water vapor is heated to a high temperature to cause the reactive particles to react with the water vapor to generate a hydrogen-containing gas, and hydrogen is generated from the hydrogen-containing gas. In a hydrogen production apparatus to be separated, a compression chamber that contains the mixture of reactive particles and water vapor for impact compression, and a high density that is higher than water vapor instead of at least part of the water vapor in the compression chamber A high-density gas supply means for supplying gas to the compression chamber, a reactive particle supply means for supplying reactive particles into the compression chamber, and a shock wave by intermittently supplying high-pressure steam or water into the compression chamber. Shock wave generating means for generating the shock wave generating means into the compression chamber when the high density gas supply means replaces at least part of the water vapor in the compression chamber with high density gas. The shock wave generated by supplying high-pressure steam or water is propagated in the compression chamber, and the mixture in the compression chamber is shock-compressed and heated to a high temperature to react the reactive particles in the mixture with water vapor. A hydrogen production apparatus characterized in that a hydrogen-containing gas is produced. The hydrogen production apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the high-density gas is inactive with respect to a hydrogen production reaction between reactive particles and water vapor. The hydrogen production apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the high-density gas is argon or carbon dioxide. The decompression means for decompressing the compression chamber is connected to the compression chamber, and the high-density gas supply means is adapted to supply the high-density gas into the compression chamber when decompressing by the decompression means. The hydrogen production apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

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