Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Hitoshi Okanobori

Atsushi Kamachi

Shunsuke Itami

An energy utilization apparatus includes: an endothermic reaction device for performing dehydrogenation endothermic reaction of an organic compound; a compression device for pressurizing a first gas containing hydrogen and a dehydrogenated organic compound, and a non-reacted organic compound which are produced in the endothermic reaction device; a distillation device for distilling under pressure the first gas which is pressurized by the compression device, so as to separate the hydrogen and the dehydrogenated organic compound from the liquefied non-reacted organic compound; a vaporization device for vaporizing the liquefied non-reacted organic compound by pressure-relieving; and an expansion energy recovery device for obtaining power of the compression device by using expansion force generated by the vaporization.

Energy utilization apparatus and energy utilization method

A fuel cell includes a laminated, plate-shaped membrane electrode assembly and first and second separator plates sandwiching the membrane electrode assembly. The membrane electrode assembly includes a polymer electrolyte membrane; first and second electrode layers sandwiching the polymer electrolyte membrane; and first and second gas-diffusion layers disposed on an outer side of the electrode layers, respectively. The first and second gas-diffusion layers are made of an air-permeable metallic material. An arithmetic average roughness Ra of a surface of the air-permeable metallic material on the side contacting one of the electrode layers is in a range of 0.1 &#x3bc;m&#x2266;Ra&#x2266;1.0 &#x3bc;m.

Fuel cell

A thermoelectric conversion apparatus having a high thermoelectric conversion efficiency comprises: a dehydrogenation reactor for generating hydrogen and acetone by an endothermic dehydrogenation reaction of isopropyl alcohol in the presence of a dehydrogenation catalyst and heat from a heat source, and a fuel cell which generates electricity by an electrochemical reaction of the hydrogen and the acetone produced by the dehydrogenation reactor. A module is constructed by integrating the dehydrogenation reactor and an electricity generating layer constituting the fuel cell into a stack.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Hitoshi Okanobori