Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Kiyoshi Taguchi

Kunihiro Ukai

Hidenobu Wakita

Seiji Fujihara

Takeshi Tomizawa

Yoshio Tamura

Shigeki Yasuda

Toshiyuki Shono

Hideo Ohara

Akira Maenishi

Yoshikazu Tanaka

Hiroshi Tatsui

Masataka Ozeki

Yukimune Kani

Kouichiro Kitagawa

Seiji Fujiwara

Tetsuya Ueda

Akinori Yukimasa

Yuji Mukai

Yutaka Yoshida

Tomoya Takeuchi

Shigeru Iiyama

Kimiyasu Honda

Koichiro Kitagawa

Akinari Nakamura

Shinji Miyauchi

Jiro Suzuki

Motohiro Suzuki

Masaki Nobuoka

Yoshitaka Kawasaki

Tomonori Asou

Hiroki Fujioka

Tetsuo Terashima

Tomoyuki Nakajima

Koichi Kusumura

Naoki Muro

Hiroaki Kaneko

Chie Harada

Yumi Kondo

Takahiro Kusuyama

Takanori Shimada

Tomonori Aso

Youji Kawaguchi

Masanori Suehiro

Kouchiro Kitagawa

Yoichi Midorikawa

Hideharu Sano

Satoru Narita

Yuuji Mukai

Yasuaki Shimada

Seiji Matsushita El Ind CoLtd Fujihara

Provided are a fuel cell system capable of shortening the wait time of an observer who confirms set points of a system interconnection protective device before starting a system interconnection operation, and a method for operating the fuel cell system. A fuel cell systemincludes: a hydrogen generating unitconfigured to generate a hydrogen-containing gas by using a raw material; a heaterconfigured to heat the hydrogen generating unit; an electric power generation start command unitconfigured to receive a command of start of an electric power generating operation of the fuel cell system, the command being input by a manual operation of an operator, the electric power generating operation being interconnected with an electric power system; and a controllerconfigured to: execute electric power generation stand-by, in which the fuel cell system stands by for the start of the electric power generating operation interconnected with the electric power system, while executing a temperature maintaining process of the hydrogen generating unit by the heater after completion of a temperature increasing process of the hydrogen generating unit by the heater; and when the electric power generation start command unit receives the command of the start of the electric power generating operation, stop the electric power generation stand-by and start the electric power generating operation interconnected with the electric power system.

Fuel cell system and method for operating the same

A power generation system includes: a combustor operative to combust a fuel; a power generator operative to utilize energy obtained from the combustor when generating electric power; a fuel supplier operative to supply the fuel to the combustor; an air supplier operative to supply combustion air to the combustor; a discharged gas passage through which a discharged gas from the combustor flows; a CO detector operative to detect CO in the discharged gas; a temperature detector operative to detect a temperature of the discharged gas; and control circuitry operative to, when the discharged gas is flowing through the discharged gas passage, perform at least one of an operation of detecting a structural abnormality of the discharged gas passage based on a difference between detected temperatures of the temperature detector relative to a difference between heated amounts of the discharged gas heated by a heater and an operation of detecting the structural abnormality of the discharged gas passage based on the difference between the detected temperatures of the temperature detector relative to a difference between outputs of at least one of the fuel supplier and the air supplier.

Power generation system and method of operating power generation system

A hydrogen generation apparatus according to the present invention includes: a reformer configured to generate a hydrogen-containing gas through a reforming reaction; a combustor configured to heat the reformer; an air supply device configured to supply air to the combustor; a fuel supply device configured to supply a fuel to the combustor; a CO detector configured to detect a carbon monoxide concentration in a flue gas discharged from the combustor; and a controller configured to control at least one of the air supply device and the fuel supply device to increase an air ratio in the combustor such that the CO concentration in the flue gas increases, and then test the CO detector for abnormality.

Hydrogen generation apparatus, fuel cell system including the same, method of operating hydrogen generation apparatus and method of operating fuel cell system

A method of operating a hydrogen generator includes: a step (a) of generating a hydrogen-containing gas by a hydrogen generation unit by using a raw material in the hydrogen generation unit; a step (b) of removing a sulfur compound from the raw material by a hydrodesulfurizer which is heated by heat transferred from the hydrogen generation unit; and a step (c) of performing an operation of supplying the raw material to the hydrogen generation unit after stopping the generating of the hydrogen-containing gas by the hydrogen generation unit. The step (c) is not performed unless, at least, a temperature of the hydrodesulfurizer is such a temperature at which carbon deposition from the raw material is suppressed.

Method of operating hydrogen generator and method of operating fuel cell system

A hydrogen generation apparatus () includes: a reformer () configured to generate a hydrogen-containing gas by using a raw material and steam; a raw material passage () through which the raw material that is supplied to the reformer () flows; a hydrodesulfurizer () provided downstream from a most downstream valve () on the raw material passage () and configured to remove a sulfur compound from the raw material; a sealer () provided on a passage () downstream from the reformer () and configured to block communication between the reformer () and the atmosphere; and a depressurizer () provided on the raw material passage () at a portion connecting the hydrodesulfurizer () and the reformer () and configured to release, to the atmosphere, pressure in the reformer () that has increased after the sealer () is closed.

Hydrogen generation apparatus and fuel cell system

A hydrogen generator includes: a desulfurizer including a desulfurization catalyst that removes a sulfur compound in a raw material by a desulfurization reaction, the desulfurization catalyst being arranged so as to be heated by a first heat source; a reformer configured to generate a hydrogen-containing gas using the raw material having flowed through the desulfurizer; a first temperature detector configured to detect a temperature of a predetermined portion of the desulfurization catalyst; a second temperature detector configured to detect the temperature of a portion of the desulfurization catalyst, the portion being located such that a distance between the portion and the first heat source is longer than a distance between the predetermined portion and the first heat source; and a controller configured to control an operation of heating the desulfurization catalyst by the first heat source, based on detection results of the first temperature detector and the second temperature detector.

Hydrogen generator and fuel cell system including same

A fuel cell system () of the present invention comprises a fuel cell (); a water circulating path () through which water associated with an operation of the fuel cell () circulates; a water circulator () for circulating water in the water circulating path (); a heater () for heating the water circulating path (); a first abnormality detector () for detecting a first abnormality which is an abnormality relating to leakage of water from the water circulating path (); and a controller (); the fuel cell system being configured to cause the water circulator () to perform a water circulating operation for circulating the water in the water circulating path () and cause the heater () to perform a heating operation for heating the water circulating path (), to suppress freezing in the water circulating path, wherein the controller () is configured to inhibit the water circulating operation for suppressing freezing and not to inhibit the heating operation for suppressing freezing, in a case where the fuel cell system () is shut down in response to detection of the first abnormality by the first abnormality detector ().

Fuel cell system

A fuel cell system of the present invention comprises a fuel cell (); a first heat medium path through which a first heat medium for cooling the fuel cell () flows; a first flow control device () configured to flow the first heat medium in the first heat medium path; an abnormality detector configured to detect an abnormality; and a controller () configured to control the first flow control device () such that the fuel cell () after shut-down of power generation is cooled with a higher rate in an abnormal shut-down process performed after the abnormality detector detects the abnormality, than in a normal shut-down process.

Fuel cell system for performing normal and abnormal shut-down processes

A hydrogen generation apparatus including: a first desulfurizer; a second desulfurizer; a reformer to generate a hydrogen-containing reformed gas from a raw material gas from which sulfur has been removed by at least one of the first desulfurizer and the second desulfurizer; and a recycle passage through which a part of the reformed gas generated by the reformer is mixed into the raw material gas to be supplied to the second desulfurizer. After installation or maintenance of the hydrogen generation apparatus, the raw material gas is supplied to the reformer through the first desulfurizer until a catalyst in the second desulfurizer is activated by a mixed gas of the reformed gas supplied through the recycle passage and the raw material gas, and after the catalyst in the second desulfurizer is activated, the raw material gas is supplied to the reformer through the second desulfurizer.

Hydrogen generation apparatus, fuel cell system including the same, and method of operating hydrogen generation apparatus

A fuel cell system includes a reforming unit, a carbon-monoxide decreasing unit, a fuel cell, a burner unit, and a raw gas supply device. At a start-up operation of the fuel cell system, an amount of raw gas supplied from the raw has supply device is adjusted according to an amount of a desorbed raw gas desorbed out of components of the raw gas adsorbed to at least one of the reforming catalyst and a carbon monoxide decreasing catalyst such that a ratio of an amount of the combustion air to an amount of the raw gas in the burner unit falls within a predetermined range.

A hydrogen generator includes: a reformer () configured to generate a hydrogen-containing gas by a reforming reaction using a raw material; a combustor () configured to heat the reformer; an air supplying device () configured to supply combustion air to the combustor; a first heat exchanger () configured to recover heat from a flue gas discharged from the combustor; a first heat medium passage () through which a first heat medium flows, the first heat medium receiving the heat recovered from the flue gas in the first heat exchanger; a first pump () configured to cause the first heat medium in the first heat medium passage to flow; a heat accumulator () configured to store the heat recovered by the first heat medium; and a controller () configured to cause the first pump to operate in a cooling step that is a step of cooling down at least the reformer by supplying the air from the air supplying device to the combustor in a state where the combustor is not carrying out combustion during a stop processing

A fuel cell system includes a reforming unit, a carbon monoxide decreasing unit, a fuel cell, a burner unit, a raw gas supply device, and a heating unit. The heating unit is controlled at a start-up operation of the fuel cell system, so as to adjust an amount of a desorbed raw gas desorbed out of components of the raw gas adsorbed to at least one of a reforming catalyst and a carbon monoxide decreasing catalyst such that a ratio of an amount of combustion air to an amount of a raw gas in the burner unit falls within a predetermined range.

A hydrogen generator of the present invention includes a reformer () for generating a hydrogen-containing gas through a reforming reaction using a raw material; a combustor () for heating the reformer (); a combustion air supplier () for supplying combustion air to the combustor (); and an abnormality detector () for detecting an abnormality; and a controller () configured to control the combustion air supplier () such that the reformer () is cooled with a higher rate in an abnormal shut-down process executed after the abnormality detector () detects the abnormality, than in a normal shut-down process.

Hydrogen generator and fuel cell system comprising the same

A hydrogen generator comprises a reformer configured to generate a hydrogen-containing gas through a reforming reaction in an internal space thereof using a material gas and steam; a material gas supply passage through which the material gas is supplied to the reformer; a material gas supplier which is provided at the material gas supply passage to supply the material gas to the reformer; a first valve configured to open and close the material gas supply passage; an evaporator configured to generate a steam supplied to the reformer; a water supplier configured to supply water to the evaporator; a communicating passage for allowing the reformer to communicate with atmosphere; a second valve configured to open and close the communicating passage; and a controller configured to stop the material gas supplier and the water supplier and close the first valve and the second valve at shutdown of the hydrogen generator; and open the second valve prior to opening the first valve when the material gas supplier resumes supply of the material gas to the reformer after the shutdown.

Hydrogen generator, fuel cell system comprising hydrogen generator, and operation method of hydrogen generator, and operation method of fuel cell system

A fuel cell includes a reforming unit, a carbon monoxide decreasing unit, a fuel cell, a burner unit and a raw gas supply device. At the star-up operation of the fuel cell system, an amount of combustion air delivered to the burner unit by an air blower is adjusted according to a total amount of a raw gas to be supplied to the burner unit and an amount of a desorbed raw gas desorbed out of raw gas components adsorbed to at least one of catalysts in a fuel processor.

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Osaka, Japan

Kiyoshi Taguchi