JP3912214B2 - 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 constant tube at atmospheric pressure to generate a shock wave. In order to increase the compression ratio of the impact compression in order to obtain a high temperature state sufficient for the reaction with, it is necessary to increase the pressure of the high-pressure gas. As a result, more gas is supplied into the tube than the amount of gas required for reaction with the reactive substance, and this excess gas is exhausted without reacting with the reactive substance and is wasted. 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 capable of producing hydrogen by generating a shock wave by reducing the amount of high-pressure gas that is simple in structure and capable of being reduced in size. And
[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. Hydrogen is separated from the hydrogen-containing gas.
[0009]
In such a hydrogen production apparatus, a reaction chamber for containing a mixture of reactive particles and water vapor to compress the impact, a decompression means for depressurizing the compression chamber, and a reaction for supplying the reactive particles into the compression chamber And a shock wave generating means for generating a shock wave by intermittently supplying high-pressure steam or water into the compression chamber, the shock wave generating means being decompressed by the pressure reducing means. Is characterized by supplying high-pressure steam or water instantaneously.
[0010]
In the present invention having such a configuration, when the pressure in the compression chamber is reduced by the pressure reducing means, the difference between the pressure in the compression chamber and the pressure of the high-pressure steam in the shock wave generating means increases. When high pressure steam or water is supplied by the generating means, a stronger shock wave is generated. This shock wave propagates into the compression chamber, impact-compresses the mixture in the compression chamber, and heats it to a high temperature, whereby reactive particles in the mixture react with water vapor to generate a hydrogen-containing gas.
[0011]
In the present invention, for example, a vacuum pump can be used as the decompression means. In particular, it is desirable to apply a water ring vacuum pump in order to prevent water vapor as a reactant from entering the sealing liquid in the vacuum pump and degrading the performance of the vacuum pump.
[0012]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0013]
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.
[0014]
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 a later-described decompression of the converging tube 2. A decompression port 11 for connection to the vacuum pump 13 is formed. The decompression port 11 is provided with a control valve 12 that is opened at a predetermined time.
[0015]
1 is connected to other apparatuses for producing hydrogen gas as shown in FIG.
[0016]
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.
[0017]
Next, a vacuum pump for reducing the pressure in the converging tube 2 by sucking the gas in the converging tube 2, that is, air or the like after supplying reactive particles into the converging tube 2 and before supplying high-pressure steam to the pressure reducing port 11. 13 is connected. In this embodiment, since the vacuum pump 13 is a water ring vacuum pump, prevention of deterioration in vacuum performance due to dilution of the sealing liquid with water vapor as a reactant is achieved.
[0018]
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.
[0019]
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.
[0020]
The exhaust port 7 is connected to an exhaust pipe 20 through a control valve 9, and discharges water vapor remaining after the reaction.
[0021]
In the apparatus of this embodiment, hydrogen gas is produced in the following manner.
[0022]
(1) First, the control valve 12 is opened and the gas in the converging tube 2 is sucked from the decompression port 11 by the vacuum pump 13 to depressurize the converging tube 2 as desired. After this pressure reduction, the control valve 12 is closed. Next, 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.
[0023]
(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. The temperature of the converging tube 2 after shock compression by shock waves is determined by the compression ratio of shock compression. In this embodiment, since the high-pressure steam is injected and supplied into the converging pipe 2 in a state where the inside of the converging pipe 2 is decompressed by the vacuum pump 13, the compression ratio can be increased without increasing the pressure of the high-pressure steam. It can be enlarged and a stronger shock wave can be generated.
[0024]
(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.
[0025]
{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.
[0026]
In this embodiment, the vacuum pump 13 is directly connected to the pressure reducing port 11 of the converging tube 2 as pressure reducing means. However, a relatively large capacity pressure reducing tank depressurized by the vacuum pump is connected to the pressure reducing port via an on-off valve. It is preferable to reduce the pressure in the compression chamber by changing the open / close valve from the closed state to the open state because the pressure in the compression chamber can be quickly reduced.
[0027]
Moreover, as reactive particles, substances containing hydrocarbons and carbon such as powder coke can be used in addition to waste plastic powder.
[0028]
【The invention's effect】
In the present invention, as described above, since the shock wave generating means supplies high-pressure steam into the compression chamber that has been depressurized from the atmospheric pressure by the pressure reducing means, compression of shock compression by shock waves without increasing the pressure of the high-pressure steam. The ratio can be increased, whereby a powerful shock wave can be generated while reducing the amount of high-pressure steam used as the high-pressure gas. 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.
[0029]
In particular, by using a water-sealed vacuum pump as the pressure reducing means, the sealing liquid of the water-sealed vacuum pump is water, so that deterioration of the vacuum performance due to dilution of the sealing liquid with water vapor as a reactant is prevented. it can.
[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 Vacuum pump (pressure reduction means)
17 Feeder (reactive particle supply means)

Claims (3)

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 the hydrogen production apparatus to be separated, a compression chamber for containing the mixture of reactive particles and water vapor to compress the impact, a decompression means for decompressing the compression chamber, and supplying the reactive particles into the compression chamber Reactive particle supply means, and shock wave generation means for generating a shock wave by intermittently supplying high pressure steam or water into the compression chamber, and the shock wave generation means is high pressure into the compression chamber when the pressure is reduced by the pressure reduction means. By propagating a shock wave generated by instantaneously supplying water vapor or water into the compression chamber and shock compressing the mixture in the compression chamber and heating it to a high temperature The reactive particles and water vapor mixture in the reacted hydrogen generating device, characterized in that so as to produce a hydrogen-containing gas. 2. The hydrogen production apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the decompression means is a vacuum pump. The hydrogen production apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the vacuum pump is a water ring vacuum pump.

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