Utc Fuel Cells, LLC

Shell Oil Comapny

Francis Kocum

Ke Liu

Albert P Grasso

Ronald Jan Schoonebeek

Antonio M Vincitore

John L Preston

Derek W Hildreth

Richard J Assarabowski

John Graham Buglass

A separator scrubber () and isolation loop () decontaminates a fuel reactant stream of a fuel cell (). Water passes over surfaces of an ammonia dissolving means () within the scrubber () while the fuel reactant stream simultaneously passes over the surfaces to remove contaminants from the fuel reactant into the water. An accumulator () collects the separated contaminants and water, and an isolation loop pump () directs flow of the separated contaminant stream through the isolation loop (). A heat exchanger () and an ion exchange bed () modify the heat of, and remove contaminants from, the separated contaminant stream, and the isolation loop () directs the decontaminated stream back onto the packed bed ()-. Separating contaminants from the fuel reactant stream and then isolating and concentrating the separated contaminants within the ion exchange bed () minimizes cost and maintenance requirements.

Contaminant separator and isolation loop for a fuel reactant stream for a fuel cell

During normal operation of a truck engine (), a catalytic partial oxidizer () provides syngas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide) to regenerate NOx traps (), for brief periods of time, or diverted () to the inlet () of an engine () via the EGR system (). Some hydrogen is extracted from syngas by a palladium membrane separator () and passed to the fuel inlet () of a fuel cell stack (). The stack () provides auxiliary electric power to the truck. Humid air from the air outlet () of the stack is provided to a fuel/exhaust/air static mixer (). A methanator () may convert CO, leaked through the palladium membranes, into CH. Water/gas shift or steam reformer catalyst () at the inlet to or inside of the palladium membranes separator may provide some additional H.

Generating syngas for NOx regeneration combined with fuel cell auxiliary power generation

Either (a) the exhaust () of an engine () and/or (b) inlet air () is sent to a hydrogen generator () along with diesel fuel () to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide () for either (c) mixing with the mainstream of exhaust fed to a catalytic converter () or (d) regenerating a pair of NOx adsorption traps (), thereby reducing oxides of nitrogen (NOx) to provide system exhaust () which may have less than 0.20 grams/bhp/hr of NOx and 0.14 grams/bhp/hr of non-methane hydrocarbons. A water recovery unit () may extract water from either the exhaust or the effluent of the NOx traps to humidify inlet air () for mixture with fuel. Inlet air () may be humidified in an air bubbling humidifier () that receives water from a condenser () that uses inlet air to cool NOx trap effluent.

Reducing oxides of nitrogen using hydrogen generated from engine fuel and exhaust

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Glastonbury, CT, United States of America

Francis Kocum