Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Jx Nippon Oil Energy Corporation

Ryuji Yukawa

Masataka Kadowaki

Satoshi Yamamoto

Yasushi Sato

Osamu Tajima

Akira Fuju

Takaya Matsumoto

Masatoshi Ueda

Keigo Miyai

Tatsuji Hatayama

Koji Shindo

Kazuhiro Tajima

Takuya Kajita

Katsuya Oda

Taketoshi Ouki

Katsuyuki Makihara

Emi Kato

There are provided a hydrogen production apparatus and a hydrogen producing method that can easily bring the temperature of a gas to be supplied to a preferential oxidation catalyst bed to a proper range without the necessity of flow rate control of a cooling medium, and a fuel cell system which is relatively inexpensive and can easily realize stable operation. The hydrogen producing method includes a reforming step of obtaining a hydrogen-containing gas from a raw material for hydrogen production by utilizing a reforming reaction, a shift reaction step of reducing the concentration of carbon monoxide in the gas obtained from the reforming step by a shift reaction, a cooling step of cooling the gas obtained from the shift reaction step, a heating step of heating the gas cooled in the cooling step and a preferential oxidation reaction step of reducing the concentration of carbon monoxide in the gas heated in the heating step, wherein in the heating step, the gas cooled in the cooling step is heated by heat exchange with the use of heat generated by the preferential oxidation reaction. A hydrogen production apparatus suitable for implementing this method. A fuel cell system provided with the hydrogen production apparatus.

Hydrogen production apparatus and fuel cell system using the same

Proton-exchange membrane fuel-cell power generating equipment includes a heat exchanger coupled to a process burner and, therethrough, to a fan. When water needs to be heated, such as during startup, the water is circulated through the heat exchanger and the process burner is operated (ignited) to heat the water. When the water needs to be cooled, such as when a hot water reserving tank is full, the water is circulated through the heat exchanger and the fan is operated, but the process burner is not operated, to cool the water. Water is circulated through part or all of a water system to prevent freezing while the system is stopped. Optionally, the process burner is operated to heat the circulated water. The heat exchanger and other heat exchangers in the system are arranged to efficiently recover heat from burners, a fuel-cell cooling system and exothermic processes.

Solid high polymer type fuel cell power generating device

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Ryuji Yukawa