Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Sakai Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.

Toto Ltd.

Noboru Taniguchi

Kazuhito Hatoh

Kenichi Tokuhiro

Tomohiro Kuroha

Takaiki Nomura

Junji Niikura

Takahiro Suzuki

Takaharu Gamo

Takaharu Gamou

Shuzo Tokumitsu

Kazuhito Hato

Eiichi Yasumoto

Satoru Tamura

Yasushi Nakagiri

Keita Kobayashi

Kinichi Adachi

Toru Sukawa

Shinji Nakahara

Akio Nakashima

Hideki Nakata

Hisaaki Gyoten

Atsuo Okaichi

Yoshio Moriwaki

Osamu Sakai

Tsutomu Iwaki

Toshiharu Otsuka

Rihito Shoji

Takashi Kakuwa

Masuo Takigawa

Shigenori Onuma

Yasuhito Takahashi

Yuichi Mikami

Nobuhiro Miyata

Takashi Tamai

Hiroshi Shirahama

Yasushi Kaneko

Kunihito Mori

Norihiro Miyamura

Masahiro Kawamura

Katsuyuki Ohara

A fuel cell system includes a hydrodesulfurizer that removes a sulfur compound from raw material and that is heated with heat of exhaust gas flowing in the fuel cell system; a fuel cell that generates power through an electrochemical reaction using fuel and oxidant gas, the fuel being obtained by reforming raw material from which the sulfur compound has been removed by the hydrodesulfurizer; an introduction passage through which the exhaust gas that is to heat the hydrodesulfurizer passes; a first heat exchanger disposed in the introduction passage and that preheats, with heat of the exhaust gas passing through the introduction passage, the oxidant gas to be supplied to the fuel cell; and a second heat exchanger that preheat, with heat of exhaust gas passing through a passage other than the introduction passage, the oxidant gas to be preheated by the first heat exchanger.

Fuel cell system

A fuel cell system includes: a reformer generating a reformed gas using a raw material; a fuel cell generating electric power; a raw material supply passage; a hydro-desulfurizer operative to remove sulfur component in the raw material; a recycle passage through which the reformed gas is supplied to the raw material supply passage provided upstream of the hydro-desulfurizer; a temperature detector detecting a temperature of the hydro-desulfurizer; and a controller, wherein: when the temperature of the hydro-desulfurizer reaches a predetermined temperature, the controller increases a flow rate of the raw material from a predetermined flow rate by a flow rate corresponding to a flow rate of the recycled gas, and then, the controller starts supplying the recycled gas to the recycle passage; and after the recycled gas reaches an upstream end of the recycle passage, the controller returns the flow rate of the raw material to the predetermined flow rate.

A fuel cell system includes: a reformer operative to generate a reformed gas by using a raw material gas; a fuel cell operative to generate electric power by using the reformed gas from the reformer and air; a desulfurizer operative to perform hydrodesulfurization of the raw material gas; a recycled gas passage through which a part of the reformed gas is supplied as a recycled gas to a raw material gas passage provided upstream of the desulfurizer; and a heat exchanger operative to cause the recycled gas flowing through the recycled gas passage to perform heat exchange with one of the raw material gas and the air.

A photoelectrochemical cell () includes: a semiconductor electrode () including a conductor () and semiconductor layers () disposed on the conductor (); a counter electrode () connected electrically to the conductor (); an electrolyte () in contact with surfaces of the semiconductor layer () and the counter electrode (); and a container () accommodating the semiconductor electrode (), the counter electrode () and the electrolyte (). A band edge level Eof a conduction band, a band edge level Eof a valence band, and a Fermi level Ein a surface near-field region of the semiconductor layer, and a band edge level Eof a conduction band, a band edge level Eof a valence band, and a Fermi level Ein a junction plane near-field region of the semiconductor layer with the conductor satisfy, relative to a vacuum level, E&#x2212;E&#x3e;E&#x2212;E, E&#x2212;E&#x3c;E&#x2212;E, E&#x3e;&#x2212;4.44 eV, and E&#x3c;&#x2212;5.67 eV. The Fermi level Ein the surface near-field region of the semiconductor layer and the Fermi level Ein the junction plane near-field region of the semiconductor layer with the conductor satisfy, relative to the vacuum level, &#x2212;5.67 eV&#x3c;E&#x3c;&#x2212;4.44 eV and &#x2212;5.67 eV&#x3c;E&#x3c;&#x2212;4.44 eV, respectively.

Photoelectrochemical cell and energy system using same

The hydrogen production device of the present invention includes: a first electrode including a conductive substrate and a photocatalytic semiconductor layer; a second electrode that is electrically connected to the first electrode and disposed in a second region opposite to a first region relative to the first electrode; the first region is defined as a region on a side of a surface of the first electrode in which the photocatalytic semiconductor layer is provided; a water-containing electrolyte solution; and a housing containing these. The first electrode is provided with first through-holes and the second electrode is provided with second through-holes; and the first through-holes and second through-holes form a communicating hole for allowing the first region and the second region to communicate with each other. An ion exchange membrane having substantially the same shape as the communicating hole is disposed in the communicating hole to close the communicating hole.

Hydrogen production device

The optically pumped semiconductor according to the present invention is an optically pumped semiconductor that is a semiconductor of a perovskite oxide. The optically pumped semiconductor has a composition represented by a general formula: BaZrMO, where M denotes at least one element selected from trivalent elements, x denotes a numerical value more than 0 but less than 0.8, and &#x3b1; denotes an amount of oxygen deficiency that is a numerical value more than 0 but less than 1.5. The optically pumped semiconductor has a crystal system of a cubic, tetragonal, or orthorhombic crystal. When lattice constants of the crystal system are referred to as a, b, and c, provided that a&#x2266;b&#x2266;c, conditions that 0.41727 nm&#x2266;a, b, c&#x2266;0.42716 nm and a/c&#x2267;0.98 are satisfied.

Optically pumped semiconductor and device using the same

A photoelectrochemical cell () includes: a semiconductor electrode () including a conductor (), a first n-type semiconductor layer () having a nanotube array structure, and a second n-type semiconductor layer (); a counter electrode () connected to the conductor (); an electrolyte () in contact with the second n-type semiconductor layer () and the counter electrode (); and a container () accommodating the semiconductor electrode (), the counter electrode () and the electrolyte (). Relative to a vacuum level, (I) band edge levels of a conduction band and a valence band in the second n-type semiconductor layer (), respectively, are higher than band edge levels of a conduction band and a valence band in the first n-type semiconductor layer (), (II) a Fermi level of the first n-type semiconductor layer () is higher than a Fermi level of the second n-type semiconductor layer (), and (III) a Fermi level of the conductor () is higher than the Fermi level of the first n-type semiconductor layer ().

A hydrogen generation device () of the present invention includes: a transparent substrate (); a photocatalytic electrode () formed of a transparent conductive layer () and a photocatalytic layer () disposed on the transparent substrate (); a counter electrode () connected electrically to the transparent conductive layer (); a water-containing electrolyte solution layer provided between the photocatalytic electrode () and the counter electrode (); a separator () that separates the electrolyte solution layer into a first electrolyte solution layer () in contact with the photocatalytic electrode () and a second electrolyte solution layer () in contact with the counter electrode (); a first gas outlet () for discharging a gas generated in the first electrolyte solution layer (); and a second gas outlet () for discharging a gas generated in the second electrolyte solution layer (). The photocatalytic electrode () and the counter electrode () are arranged so that a surface of the photocatalytic layer () and a surface of the counter electrode () face each other. The separator () allows an electrolyte in the electrolyte solution layer to pass therethrough and prevents hydrogen gas and oxygen gas in the electrolyte solution layer from passing therethrough.

Hydrogen generation device

The method for producing the optical semiconductor of the present disclosure includes a mixing step of producing a mixture containing a reduction inhibitor and a niobium compound that contains at least oxygen in its composition; a nitriding step of nitriding the mixture by the reaction between the mixture and a nitrogen compound gas; and a washing step of isolating niobium oxynitride from the material obtained through the nitriding step by dissolving chemical species other than niobium oxynitride with a washing liquid. The optical semiconductor of the present disclosure substantially consists of niobium oxynitride having a crystal structure of baddeleyite and having a composition represented by the composition formula, NbON.

Optical semiconductor and method for producing the same, optical semiconductor device, photocatalyst, hydrogen producing device, and energy system

A titanium oxide photocatalyst that is capable of improving a decomposition rate, and a method for producing the same are provided. The titanium oxide photocatalyst of the present invention is a titanium oxide photocatalyst containing at least an anatase-type titanium oxide and fluorine, wherein a content of the fluorine is 2.5 wt % to 3.5 wt %, and 90 wt % or more of the fluorine is chemically bonded to the anatase-type titanium oxide.

Titanium oxide photocatalyst and method for producing the same

A photoelectrochemical cell () is a photoelectrochemical cell for decomposing water by irradiation with light so as to produce hydrogen. This photoelectrochemical cell () includes: a conductive substrate; a first electrode (optical semiconductor electrode ()) including an optical semiconductor and disposed on a first main surface of the conductive substrate; a second electrode (counter electrode ()) disposed in a region on the first main surface of the conductive substrate where the first electrode is not disposed; an electrolyte containing water and disposed in contact with a surface of the first electrode and a surface of the second electrode; a rib () formed to separate a space above the surface of the second electrode from a space above the surface of the first electrode and to extend along a flow direction of a gas produced on the surface of the second electrode, the rib being formed of a material that allows ions to pass therethrough and prevents a gas from passing therethrough; and a container () containing the conductive substrate, the first electrode, the second electrode, the electrolyte, and the rib.

Photoelectrochemical cell

Provided are a photocatalytic material that improves a decomposition performance and a decomposition rate, as well as a photocatalytic member and a purification device in which the photocatalytic material is used. The photocatalytic member is a photocatalytic member () that includes a substrate () and a photocatalyst layer () formed on a surface of the substrate (), wherein the photocatalyst layer () contains a titanium oxide photocatalyst and zeolite, the titanium oxide photocatalyst containing at least an anatase-type titanium oxide and fluorine, in which a content of the fluorine in the titanium oxide photocatalyst is 2.5 wt % to 3.5 wt %, and 90 wt % or more of the fluorine is chemically bonded to the anatase-type titanium oxide.

Photocatalytic material and photocatalytic member and purification device using the photocatalytic material

A photoelectrochemical cell () includes: a semiconductor electrode () including a conductor () and an n-type semiconductor layer (); a counter electrode () connected electrically to the conductor (); an electrolyte () in contact with the surfaces of the n-type semiconductor layer () and the counter electrode (); and a container () accommodating the semiconductor electrode (), the counter electrode () and the electrolyte (). The photoelectrochemical cell () generates hydrogen by irradiation of the n-type semiconductor layer () with light. In the semiconductor electrode (), relative to the vacuum level, (I) the band edge levels of the conduction band and the valence band in the surface near-field region of the n-type semiconductor layer (), respectively, are equal to or higher than the band edge levels of the conduction band and the valence band in the junction plane near-field region of the n-type semiconductor layer () with the conductor (), (II) the Fermi level of the junction plane near-field region of the n-type semiconductor layer () is higher than the Fermi level of the surface near-field region of the n-type semiconductor layer (), and (III) the Fermi level of the conductor () is higher than the Fermi level of the junction plane near-field region of the n-type semiconductor layer ().

Photoelectrochemical cell and energy system using the same

A material which conducts protons or oxide ions with high ionic conductivity and is excellent in moisture resistance and reduction resistance is provided. A perovskite oxide represented by the formula (1):BaZrCeMLO&#x2003;&#x2003;(1)(wherein Mis at least one member selected from the group consisting of rare earth elements, In, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Al and Ga, Lis at least one member selected from the group consisting of P, B and N and a, b, c, d and a satisfy 0&#x2266;a&#x3c;1.2, 0&#x3c;b&#x3c;1.2, 0&#x3c;c&#x3c;1.2, 0.9&#x3c;a+b+c&#x3c;1.2, 0&#x3c;d&#x3c;0.1 and 0&#x3c;&#x3b1;&#x3c;3) is used as an ionic conductor.

Ionic conductor

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Noboru Taniguchi