Hitachi, Ltd.

Yumihito Kondo

Susumu Horiuchi

Shinjiro Kimura

Yoshiaki Amamo

A hydrogen generating apparatus has, at least, a material gas supply system, steam generator, an air supply system, a reforming system including a reformer and a shift converter each incorporating a catalyst, a product hydrogen transporting system, and a reformer combustion gas exhaust system. The apparatus is characterized by further having a shift converter jacket surrounding the catalyst of said shift converter, a branch pipe branching from said reformer combustion gas exhaust system and leading to said shift converter jacket, and a change-over valve provided at a portion of said reformer combustion gas exhaust system where said branch pipes branches off said reformer combustion gas exhaust system. During the start-up of the apparatus, the combustion gas exhausted from the reformer is introduced into the shift converter jacket to heat the shift converter thereby realizing a quick start-up, i.e., temperature rise, of the reformer system.

Growing community of inventors

Ibaraki, Japan

Yumihito Kondo