U.S. patent application number 12/279602 was filed with the patent office on 2010-09-09 for method and apparatus for operating a fuel cell in combination with an absorption chiller.
This patent application is currently assigned to UTC POWER CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Robert J. Braun, Brian Chakulski, Bhimashankar V. Nitta, Benoit C. Olsommer.
Application Number | 20100227239 12/279602 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 38563974 |
Filed Date | 2010-09-09 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100227239 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Nitta; Bhimashankar V. ; et
al. |
September 9, 2010 |
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR OPERATING A FUEL CELL IN COMBINATION WITH
AN ABSORPTION CHILLER
Abstract
A standard phosphoric acid fuel cell power plant (11) has its
heat exchanger (29) removed such that a higher temperature coolant
flow can be directed from the system to the generator (37) of an
absorption chiller (34). In one embodiment, the higher temperature
coolant may flow directly from the fuel cell stack (14) to the
generator and after passing therethrough, it is routed back to the
high temperature coolant loop (27). In another embodiment, the
higher temperature coolant is made to transfer some of its heat to
a lower temperature coolant and the lower temperature coolant is
then made to flow directly to the generator and back to the lower
temperature coolant loop (22). In the first embodiment, either a
double effect absorption chiller or a single effect absorption
chiller is used, while in the second embodiment a single effect
absorption chiller is used.
Inventors: |
Nitta; Bhimashankar V.;
(Ellington, CT) ; Chakulski; Brian; (Vernon,
CT) ; Olsommer; Benoit C.; (South Glastonbury,
CT) ; Braun; Robert J.; (Windsor, CT) |
Correspondence
Address: |
MARJAMA MULDOON BLASIAK & SULLIVAN LLP
250 SOUTH CLINTON STREET, SUITE 300
SYRACUSE
NY
13202
US
|
Assignee: |
UTC POWER CORPORATION
South Windsor
CT
|
Family ID: |
38563974 |
Appl. No.: |
12/279602 |
Filed: |
March 30, 2006 |
PCT Filed: |
March 30, 2006 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/US2006/011359 |
371 Date: |
August 15, 2008 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
429/437 |
Current CPC
Class: |
Y02E 60/50 20130101;
Y02B 90/10 20130101; H01M 2250/405 20130101; H01M 8/04029 20130101;
H01M 8/086 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
429/437 |
International
Class: |
H01M 8/04 20060101
H01M008/04 |
Claims
1. A combined system of an absorption chiller and a fuel cell power
plant of the type having a fuel cell stack and an associated stack
coolant loop in which the coolant is heated to a level of high
grade heat, comprising: an absorption chiller having a generator
for heating an absorptive solution; a first conduit for conducting
the flow of heated coolant directly from the fuel cell stack to the
generator for providing heat thereto and, in the process, being
cooled; and a second conduit for conducting the cooled coolant back
to the stack coolant loop.
2. A combined system as set forth in claim 1 wherein the
temperature level of said high grade heat is in the range of
310-335.degree. F.
3. A combined system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said
absorption chiller is a double effect chiller and the flow of
heated coolant is conducted into a high stage generator.
4. A combined system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said
absorption chiller is a single effect absorption chiller.
5. A combined system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said fuel cell
power plant includes another coolant loop with the coolant therein
being heated to a temperature level of low grade heat and further
wherein heat is transferred from said stack coolant loop to said
other coolant loop.
6. A combined system as set forth in claim 5 wherein said fuel cell
power plant includes a fuel processing system which generates heat
which is transferred to said other coolant loop.
7. A combined system as set forth in claim 6 wherein said fuel cell
power plant includes another heat source which transfers heat to
said other coolant loop, said other heat source originating at said
fuel cell stack.
8. A combined system as set forth in claim 5 wherein said second
conduit is fluidly connected to said stack coolant loop at a point
downstream of said point wherein said heat is transferred from said
stack coolant loop to said other coolant loop.
9. A combined system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said fuel cell
power plant includes phosphoric acid fuel cells.
10. A method of adapting for use with an absorption chiller, a fuel
cell power plant having a fuel cell stack with a first coolant
flowing therethrough in a high grade heat loop which passes through
a first heat exchanger to transfer heat to a second coolant in a
low grade heat loop which, in turn, passes through a second heat
exchanger to transfer heat to said second heat exchanger,
comprising the steps of: removing the second heat exchanger;
providing an absorption chiller having a generator; directly
connecting said high grade heat loop to said generator such that
the first coolant flows from said high grade heat loop, through
said generator and back to said high grade heat loop.
11. The method as set forth in claim 10 wherein said absorption
chiller is a double effect absorption chiller and the generator is
a high stage generator.
12. The method as set forth in claim 10 wherein said absorption
chiller is a single effect absorption chiller.
13. The method as set forth in claim 10 wherein the point where
said first coolant flows back to said high grade heat loop is a
point downstream from said first heat exchanger.
14. A method for adapting for use with an absorption chiller, a
fuel cell power plant having a fuel cell stack with a first coolant
flowing therethrough in a high grade heat loop which passes through
a first heat exchanger to transfer heat to a second coolant in the
low grade heat loop which, in turn, passes through a second heat
exchanger to transfer heat to said second heat exchanger,
comprising the steps of: removing the second heat exchanger;
providing an absorption chiller having a generator; and fluidly
connecting said low grade heat loop to said generator such that the
second coolant flows from said low grade heat loop, through said
generator and back to said low grade heat loop.
15. A method as set forth in claim 14 wherein said absorption
chiller is a double effect absorption chiller and said generator is
a high stage generator.
16. A method as set forth in claim 14 wherein said absorption
chiller is a single effect absorption chiller.
17. A method as set forth in claim 14 wherein said fuel cell stack
includes phosphoric acid fuel cells.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] This invention relates generally to fuel cell power plants
and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for using an
absorption chiller in combination therewith.
[0002] A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell which consumes fuel
and an oxidant on a continuous basis to generate electrical energy.
The fuel is consumed at an anode and the oxidant at a cathode. The
anode and cathode are placed in electrochemical communication by an
electrolyte. One typical fuel cell employs a phosphoric acid
electrolyte. The phosphoric acid fuel cell uses air to provide
oxygen as an oxidant to the cathode and uses a hydrogen rich stream
to provide hydrogen as a fuel to the anode. After passing through
the cell, the depleted air and fuel streams are vented from the
system on a continuous basis.
[0003] A typical fuel cell power plant comprises one or more stacks
of fuel cells, the cells within each stack being connected
electrically in series to raise the voltage potential of the stack.
A stack may be connected in parallel with other stacks to increase
the current generating capability of the power plant. Depending
upon the size of the power plant, a stack of fuel cells may
comprise a half dozen cells or less, or as many as several hundred
cells. Air and fuel are usually fed to the cells by one or more
manifolds per stack.
[0004] In each of the fuel cells, waste heat is a by-product of the
steam reforming process for conversion of fuel to a hydrogen rich
steam, electrochemical reactions and the heat generation associated
with current transport within the cell components. Accordingly, a
cooling system must be provided for removing the waste heat from a
stack of fuel cells so as to maintain the temperature of the cells
at a uniform level which is consistent with the properties of the
material used in the cells and the operating characteristics of the
cells. This has typically been accomplished by circulating a
coolant, such as water, through the fuel cell stack to cool the
cells to the required level, with the temperature of the water
emanating from the fuel stack being relatively high (i.e. over
300.degree. F.). While temperature of 300-350.degree. F. are
acceptable for industrial or large campus customers, which are
relatively few in number, those temperature are too hot for most
main stream commercial customers. Thus, low grade and high grade
customer heat exchangers were added to ensure ease of integration
with most commercial customer heat transfer equipment. That is,
these heat exchangers and cooling loops were added to reduce the
temperature down to a useful level (i.e. around 150.degree. F.) for
ordinary boiling uses such as boiler feed water, heating coils in
the air handling systems, radiant heating, hydraulic heating,
laundry and household use. These exchanges also served the purpose
of protecting the cell stack from possible contaminants in the
customer side loops. Such a design has thus become the standard in
the industry, with all fuel cell plants being sold with the
associated heat exchangers installed as standard equipment.
[0005] One application that has recently come into use is that of
applying the hot water available as low grade heat as a source of
heat to drive either absorption chillers for the generation of
chilled water for space cooling. While this does make use of the
waste heat from the fuel cell power plant, it has been found to be
a relatively inefficient use of an absorption chiller. That is, the
major drawback with using customer heat exchangers it that the
addition of another heat transfer loop leads to thermal losses and
driving force losses, as these external loops must operate at lower
temperatures.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] Briefly, in accordance with one aspect of the invention, the
heat exchanger is removed from the standard equipment provided with
a fuel cell generating plant such that the temperature of the waste
heat emanating therefrom is elevated from a relatively low to an
intermediate temperature which, when applied to an absorption
chiller, is more efficient in the chilling of water.
[0007] In accordance with another aspect of the invention, rather
than passing through the heat exchange process to reduce the
temperature of the stack coolant to a relatively low or
intermediate temperature, the high temperature coolant is caused to
flow directly to the absorption chiller generator so as to provide
greater efficiency in the operation of the chiller.
[0008] In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a single
effect absorption chiller is replaced with a double effect
absorption chiller, with the high temperature stack coolant then
flowing directly to the chiller generator, thereby resulting in
even greater efficiencies.
[0009] In the drawings as hereinafter described, a preferred
embodiment and modified embodiments are depicted; however, various
other modifications and alternate constructions can be made thereto
without departing from the true spirit and scope of the
invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a fuel cell power
plant being used in combination with a single effect adsorption
chiller in accordance with the prior art.
[0011] FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a fuel cell power
plant as used in combination with a single effect absorption
chiller in accordance with the prior art.
[0012] FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of a fuel cell power
plant as being used in combination with a double effect absorption
chiller in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.
[0013] FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a fuel cell power
plant as used in combination with a single effect absorption
chiller in accordance with another embodiment of the invention.
[0014] FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a fuel cell power
plant as used in the combination with a single effect absorption
chiller in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present
invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0015] Referring now to FIG. 1, a power plant apparatus 11 is shown
within the dashed lines and includes a power generation portion 12
and a cooling portion 13. The power generation portion 12 includes
a fuel cell stack 14 and a fuel processing system 16 both of which
produce waste heat, which passes through the respective exhaust
ducts 17 and 18 to a plant exhaust stack 19 where it is discharged
to ambient. Within the stack 19 is a heat exchanger 21 to which is
transferred a portion of the heat from the exhaust ducts 17 and 18.
Such heat is considered to be low grade heat that is passed to the
low grade heat circulation loop 22 as part of the cooling portion
13 of the system. The temperature of the circulating liquid passing
through the heat exchanger 21 is on the order of 160.degree. F.
[0016] In order to reduce the high temperatures within the fuel
cell stack 14, a liquid, such as water, is passed by way of an
inlet line 23, into and through the fuel cell stack 14 and out an
outlet line 24, with a pump 26 maintaining the flow through the
closed loop 27. The liquid coolant in this loop is at a relatively
high temperature (i.e. in the range of 310-335.degree. F.), and is
considered to be high grade heat. The closed loop 27 is thus
considered to be a high grade heat loop.
[0017] For purposes of this description, high grade heat is herein
defined as waste heat from a fuel cell power plant that is
transferred to a coolant loop with the coolant being heated to a
temperature level of about or over 250.degree. F., while low grade
heat is defined as waste heat from a fuel cell power plant that is
transferred to a coolant loop with the coolant being heated to a
temperature level of about 140.degree. F.
[0018] Within the cooling portion 13 of the system, there are
provided three heat exchangers, 28, 29, and 31 within the
circulation loop 22 and a pump 32 for maintaining the flow within
the loop 22. The primary heat exchanger 28 is a liquid to liquid
heat exchanger of the counter-flow type such as a concentric tube
heat exchanger. Its function is to transfer some of the heat from
the fuel cell stack coolant, so that it is cooled from a relatively
high temperature (i.e., 310-335.degree. F.) to a temperature of
about 250.degree. F., which coolant is then circulated back into
the fuel cell stack 14.
[0019] Within the circulation loop 22, a liquid coolant flowing
through the primary heat exchanger 28 picks up heat and is heated
to a temperature from around 160.degree. F. to around 190.degree..
A secondary heat exchanger 29 is provided to reduce the temperature
thereof by a heat exchange relationship with an auxiliary apparatus
30 as will be described.
[0020] As the liquid coolant in the circulation loop 22 passes
through the secondary heat exchanger 29, the temperature is reduced
from around 190.degree. F. to around 150.degree. F., after which it
passes through the heat exchanger 31, which is an ambient heat
rejection unit in the form of a liquid to air heat exchanger. As
the coolant passes through this heat exchanger, its temperature is
reduced from around 180.degree. F. to around 100.degree. F., with
the rejected heat passing to the atmosphere.
[0021] In the event that an auxiliary apparatus 30 is not in
operation, then it is necessary to shed as much of the heat as
possible by way of the heat exchanger 31. A bypass line 33 is
therefore provided to pass the coolant directly from the pump 32 to
the ambient heat rejection unit 31.
[0022] Considering now the auxiliary apparatus 30, one of the uses
that has been made of the heat from the secondary heat exchanger 29
is that of driving an adsorption chiller 34 as shown in FIG. 1 or a
similar single effect absorption chiller 36 as shown in FIG. 2. In
the case of the adsorption chiller 34, the boiler or generator 37
is heated by the liquid in secondary loop 38 of the exchanger 29,
with the temperature of the input flow of around 150.degree. F.
being reduced to around 140.degree. F. at the outlet from the
generator 37. The water to be chilled passes into the adsorption
chiller 34 by way of a line 39 and out by way of line 41. On the
condenser side of the chiller 34, a cooling tower 42 is provided to
cool the liquid flowing in the inlet line 43 from around 90.degree.
F. to around 85.degree. F. as it flows in the outlet line 44.
[0023] In respect to the boiler or generator 46 of the single
effect absorption chiller shown in FIG. 2, the temperatures of the
various liquids passing into and out of the chiller 46 are
substantially the same as those for the adsorption chiller as shown
in FIG. 1.
[0024] It has been recognized by the applicant that neither of the
adsorption chiller of FIG. 1 nor the single effect absorption
chiller 36 of FIG. 2 operate very efficiently. It has been found in
each case, that a single chiller plant will provide around twenty
refrigeration tons of cooling capacity with a COP (coefficient of
performance) of about 0.6 where the COP is the ratio of chilling
delivered by the chiller to the heat input to the chiller, all in
common thermal units.
[0025] Referring now to FIG. 3, it will be seen that the power
plant apparatus has been modified from its standard configuration
by removing the secondary heat exchanger 29. Further, rather than
the coolant from the fuel cell stack 14 first transferring its heat
to the coolant in the circulation loop 22 by way of the primary
heat exchanger 28 and then having the coolant in the circulation
loop 22 being applied indirectly to the auxiliary apparatus 30 by
way of the secondary heat exchanger 29, the high temperature (i.e.
310.degree. F.-335.degree. F.) coolant from the fuel cell stack is
applied directly to an auxiliary apparatus 45 by way of line 46 as
shown in FIG. 3. With this high temperature liquid, it is possible
to use a different type of auxiliary apparatus 45 and one which is
more efficient than the prior art auxiliary apparatus 30 as shown
in FIGS. 1 and 2. Here, a double effect absorption chiller 47 with
a high stage generator 48 is installed, with the high temperature
liquid in line 46 providing the heat for the high stage generator
48. For such an arrangement, the applicant has found that a
substantial improvement in cooling capacity can be obtained. For
example, a single system has been found to provide 27-38
refrigeration tons as compared with twenty refrigerant tons of the
prior art systems. Further, a COP greater than 1.0 has been
obtained with such a system as compared with a COP of 0.6 for the
prior art systems.
[0026] After the high temperature fluid has passed through the high
stage generator 48 and had its temperature reduced to around
250.degree. F., rather than being returned to the circulation loop
22 as in the prior art, it is caused to flow by line 49 directly to
the closed loop 27, at a point downstream of the primary heat
exchanger 28, as shown in FIG. 3. That fluid is combined with the
other fluids in the closed loop 27 is now at a temperature of
around 250.degree. F. and is returned to the fuel cell stack 14 for
the cooling thereof.
[0027] With the removal of the heat exchanger 29, the coolant
liquid flowing from the heat exchanger 28 is now caused to flow
directly to the heat exchanger 31 and then along line 35 to the
plant exhaust stack 19 as shown.
[0028] The FIG. 4 embodiment is substantially the same as that of
FIG. 3 except that the double effect absorption chiller 47 is
replaced with a single effect absorption chiller 34 having a
generator 37. Although this is the same absorption chiller that is
used in the FIG. 1 embodiment, it should be recognized that, with
the removal of the heat exchanger 29 and the application of the
high grade heat liquid directly to the generator 37, greater
efficiencies can be achieved to increase the capacity to 25
refrigeration tons with a COP of over 0.7. Further, the chiller of
the FIG. 4 embodiment can be made cheaper than the chiller of the
FIG. 2 embodiment because the heat exchanger for the generator 37
is less expensive since it is operated by employing higher
temperatures and therefore does not have to operate as efficiently
as the exchanger in the generator of the FIG. 2 embodiment.
[0029] It will be seen from the above discussion that, while the
greatest efficiency can be obtained by the use of a double effect
absorption chiller as shown in FIG. 3, it is still possible to use
a single effect absorption chiller with the higher temperature
coolant as shown in FIG. 4. However, there are some single effect
absorption chillers that will not be sufficiently robust to allow
the flow of high temperature coolant directly to the generator. In
those cases, it may be necessary to adapt the apparatus as shown in
FIG. 5.
[0030] In the FIG. 5 embodiment, the low grade heat coolant in the
circulation loop 22, after picking up heat from the high grade heat
loop 27, is made to flow directly into the generator 37 from the
heat exchanger 28 by way of line 51. The temperature of that
coolant is in the range of 190.degree. F.-240.degree. F. After
passing through the generator 37, the coolant is passed to the heat
exchanger 31 by way of line 52 and then along line 35 to the heat
exchanger 21 as shown. Again, the efficiency is improved over the
FIG. 1 embodiment and is substantially equal to that for the FIG. 4
embodiment. That is, it will provide a cooling capacity of around
25 refrigeration tons and a COP of over 0.7.
[0031] While the present invention has been particularly shown and
described with reference to preferred and modified embodiments as
illustrated in the drawings, it will be understood by one skilled
in the art that various changes in detail may be effected therein
without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the
claims. For example, although the preferred embodiment is described
in terms of use with phosphoric acid fuel cells, other types of
fuel cells such as solid oxide fuel cells, may also be used.
Further, the invention is equally applicable to thermoelectrically
activated technologies for the conversion of thermal energy to
electricity. Also, even though described in terms of single effect
and double effect absorption chillers, the invention would be
equally applicable to triple effect absorption chillers.
* * * * *