Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Kimiyasu Honda

Kunihiro Ukai

Hiroshi Aoki

Kiyoshi Taguchi

Takeshi Tomizawa

Kazuyuki Hamada

Toshiyuki Shono

Toyoshi Kamisako

Kouichiro Kitagawa

Tadashi Adachi

Kazuya Nakanishi

Yasuyuki Okamoto

Masashi Yuasa

Kouchiro Kitagawa

Yoshiki Ohashi

Takeshi Shimizu

Hironori Imada

Yoshihiro Itou

Yoshito Kimura

Osamu Ueno

Atsuhiro Ohshima

Tatsuya Kawasaki

Hideo Nishihata

Keiichi Takase

A hydrogen purifying apparatus and method are provided for oxidizing and removing carbon monoxide (CO) in a modified gas containing CO in addition to a main component hydrogen gas. The apparatus and method use comprises a catalyst reaction segment having a catalyst layer for oxidizing CO, a material gas supplying segment for supplying the modified gas to the reaction segment via a material gas supply pathway, and an oxidant gas supplying segment for supplying an oxidant gas on the path of the material gas supply pathway. Preferably, the apparatus further comprises means for cooling the catalyst layer at the upstream side and means for heating the catalyst layer at the downstream side.

Method for purifying hydrogen in a reformed gas

A hydrogen generating apparatus comprising a reformer, a heating section, a fuel supply section, a water supply section, a shift reactor with a shift catalyst layer, a first heat exchanger on the downstream side of the shift catalyst layer, and a temperature detector for the shift catalyst layer. The temperature of the downstream portion of the shift catalyst layer is raised by the action of the heat exchanger compared with the temperature of the same before the amount of the reformed gas is increased. And, the temperature of the downstream portion is lowered compared with the temperature of the same before the amount of the reformed gas is reduced when reducing the amount of the reformed gas. Accordingly, regardless whether the generation amount of hydrogen is large or small, the hydrogen generating apparatus can supply a constant concentration hydrogen gas while keeping the concentration of byproduct carbon monoxide low.

Method for operating a hydrogen generating apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Kusatsu, Japan

Kimiyasu Honda