JP2009082809A - Vaporizer and its driving method, and generating set - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vaporizer which can suppress bumping and nucleate boiling as a vaporizer in a generating set. <P>SOLUTION: The generating set comprises a storage container, a feeder, the vaporizer 4, a reactor, and a fuel cell. The vaporizer 4 comprises a tubular housing 20, a droplet discharge head 30 installed inside the housing 20, an absorption sheet 70 installed inside the housing 20 so as to face the droplet discharge head 30, and a heater 80 heating the absorption sheet 70. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vaporizer, a driving method thereof, and a power generation device.

  In recent years, fuel cells have attracted attention as clean power sources with high energy conversion efficiency, and are being put to practical use in fuel cell vehicles and electrified houses. In addition, research and development for using a fuel cell as a power source are also being promoted in mobile phones and notebook personal computers that are being downsized and highly functional.

As a fuel cell, there is a reforming type fuel cell that generates electric power by an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen produced by reforming a liquid fuel containing hydrogen atoms such as methanol. Such a reforming type fuel cell is provided with a vaporizer and a reformer as peripheral devices, and liquid fuel or water is vaporized by the vaporizer, and a mixture of the fuel and water is supplied to the reformer. Then, hydrogen or the like is generated in the reformer, and the generated hydrogen or the like is sent to the fuel electrode of the fuel cell (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Air is sent to the air electrode of the fuel cell, and electricity is generated by an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen through the electrolyte membrane of the fuel cell. As a vaporizer, there exists a thing described in patent document 2, for example.
JP 2004-319467 A JP 2003-192304 A

  By the way, in a vaporizer that has been used in the past, nucleate boiling or bumping may occur when fuel or water is vaporized, and nucleate boiling or bumping, which has been difficult to generate gas stably and continuously, occurs. When ungasified fuel or water is suddenly ejected to the downstream reformer or fuel cell, the liquid has an adverse effect, and a stable reaction does not occur in the reformer or fuel cell. Thus, it has been difficult to obtain a stable power generation operation in the fuel cell.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to suppress bumping and nucleate boiling in a vaporizer.

In order to solve the above problems, according to the invention according to claim 1,
A liquid droplet discharge device that is supplied with liquid and discharges the liquid as liquid droplets in one direction;
An absorber that is provided opposite to the one-direction side of the droplet discharge device and absorbs the droplet discharged from the droplet discharge device;
A heater for heating the absorbent;
With
There is provided a vaporizer characterized in that the heated absorbent material vaporizes the droplets absorbed by the absorbent material and discharges it to the one side of the absorbent material.

According to the invention of claim 2,
The vaporizer according to claim 1, wherein the absorbent material is provided in a sheet shape.

According to the invention of claim 3,
A housing,
The droplet discharge device and the absorber are provided in the housing opposite to each other, the liquid is supplied from the other side of the housing, and the vaporized gas is discharged from the one side of the housing. A vaporizer according to claim 1 or 2 is provided.

According to the invention of claim 4,
The carburetor according to claim 3, wherein the heater is mounted on the housing.

According to the invention of claim 5,
5. The liquid droplet ejection device according to claim 1, further comprising: a plurality of ejection ports and an actuator that is provided corresponding to each ejection port and ejects liquid droplets from the ejection ports. 6. A vaporizer according to one paragraph is provided.

According to the invention of claim 6,
The carburetor according to claim 5, wherein the actuator is a heating resistor.

According to the invention of claim 7,
The carburetor according to claim 5, wherein the actuator is a piezo element.

According to the invention of claim 8,
The vaporizer according to claim 5, wherein the actuator is an electrostatic electrode for charging the liquid.

According to the invention of claim 9,
The vaporizer according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the droplet discharge device discharges the droplet intermittently.

According to the invention of claim 10,
In the driving method of the vaporizer for vaporizing and discharging the supplied liquid,
Supplying the liquid to a droplet discharge device, and intermittently discharging the liquid as a droplet from the droplet discharge device in one direction;
Causing the absorbent material to absorb the liquid droplets that have reached the absorbent material provided facing the one-direction side of the liquid droplet ejection device;
A vaporizer drive control method, wherein the absorbent is heated by a heater to vaporize the droplets absorbed by the absorbent, and the vaporized gas is discharged to the one side of the absorbent. Is provided.

According to the invention of claim 11,
A container that stores fuel, a droplet discharge device that is supplied with the fuel from the container and discharges the fuel as droplets in one direction, and is provided facing the one direction side of the droplet discharge device And an absorber that absorbs the droplets discharged and reached from the droplet discharge device, and a heater that heats the absorber, and is absorbed by the absorber by the heated absorber. A vaporizer that vaporizes the droplets and discharges it to the one side of the absorber;
A fuel cell that generates electricity by an electrochemical reaction using the vaporized fuel discharged by the vaporizer; and
A power generator characterized by comprising:

  According to the present invention, the liquid droplets ejected by the liquid droplet ejection device are absorbed by the heated fiber material, and the liquid absorbed by the fiber material is vaporized. Since the droplets are absorbed and captured by the fiber material, bumping and nucleate boiling can be prevented from occurring during the vaporization process, and the liquid can be vaporized stably.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, although various technically preferable limitations for implementing the present invention are given to the embodiments described below, the scope of the invention is not limited to the following embodiments and illustrated examples.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the power generator 1. The power generation device 1 is provided in, for example, a notebook personal computer, a mobile phone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), an electronic notebook, a wristwatch, a digital still camera, a digital video camera, a game device, a game machine, and other electronic devices. Yes, it is used as a power source for operating these electronic device bodies.

The power generation device 1 includes a storage container 2, a supply device 3, a vaporizer 4, a reaction device 5, and a fuel cell 6.
The storage container 2 stores fuel (for example, methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether, butane, gasoline) and water in a mixed state.
The supply device 3 sends out the liquid stored in the storage container 2 to the vaporizer 4 and is, for example, a combination of a pump and a valve. Note that the liquid in the storage container 2 may be sent to the vaporizer 4 by gravity or capillary action of the liquid stored in the storage container 2 without providing the supply device 3.
The vaporizer 4 evaporates the liquid sent from the storage container 2.
The reactor 5 reacts the fuel sent from the vaporizer 4 and the water gas to produce hydrogen.
The fuel cell 6 generates power by an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. Specifically, the fuel cell 6 includes a fuel electrode 7, an electrolyte membrane 8, and an air electrode 9. Then, hydrogen or the like generated in the reaction device 5 is sent to the fuel electrode 7 of the fuel cell 6, and external air is sent to the air electrode 9 by an air pump, a blower, or other air delivery device. Hydrogen in the gas supplied to the fuel electrode 7 electrochemically reacts with oxygen in the air supplied to the air electrode 9 through the electrolyte membrane 8. Thereby, electric power is generated between the fuel electrode 7 and the air electrode 9.

When the electrolyte membrane 8 of the fuel cell 6 is a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, the reaction device 5 includes a reformer, a carbon monoxide remover, a combustor, and a heat insulation package. The reformer, the carbon monoxide remover, and the combustor are all catalytic reactors, and these are accommodated in a heat insulation package. When the fuel is methanol, chemical reactions such as the following formulas (1) and (2) occur in the reformer.
CH ₂ OH + H ₂ O → 3H ₂ + CO ₂ (1)
H ₂ + CO ₂ → H ₂ O + CO (2)
Products from the reformer (hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, etc.) and external air are sent to the carbon monoxide remover, where carbon monoxide is preferentially oxidized. The hydrogen generated through the reformer and the carbon monoxide remover in this way is sent to the fuel electrode 7 of the fuel cell 6. Unreacted hydrogen or the like in the fuel cell 6 is sent to the combustor of the reaction device 5, and external air is further sent to the combustor of the reaction device 5 by an air pump, a blower, or other air delivery device. Combustion heat is generated by hydrogen catalytically burning in the combustor of the reactor 5. The combustion heat is used for the hydrogen production reaction in the reformer of the reactor 5.
When the electrolyte membrane 8 is a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, an electrochemical reaction of the reaction formula (3) occurs at the fuel electrode 7 and an electrochemical reaction of the reaction formula (4) occurs at the air electrode 9.
H ₂ → 2H ⁺ + 2e ⁻ (3)
2H ⁺ + 1 / 2O ₂ + 2e ⁻ → H ₂ O (4)

When the electrolyte membrane 8 of the fuel cell 6 is a solid oxide electrolyte membrane, the reaction device 5 includes a reformer, a combustor, and a heat insulation package. Both the reformer and the combustor are catalytic reactors, which are accommodated in a heat insulating package. In the reformer, the chemical reactions of the above reaction formulas (1) and (2) occur, and thus hydrogen and the like generated via the reformer are sent to the fuel electrode 7 of the fuel cell 6. Unreacted hydrogen or the like in the fuel cell 6 is sent to the combustor of the reaction device 5, and external air is further sent to the combustor of the reaction device 5 by an air pump, a blower, or other air delivery device. Combustion heat is generated by hydrogen catalytically burning in the combustor of the reactor 5. The combustion heat is used for the hydrogen production reaction in the reformer of the reactor 5.
When the electrolyte membrane 8 is a solid oxide electrolyte membrane, an electrochemical reaction of reaction formula (5) occurs at the air electrode 9 and an electrochemical reaction of reaction formula (6) occurs at the fuel electrode 7.
1 / 2O ₂ + 2e ⁻ → 2O ²⁻ (5)
H ₂ + 2O ²⁻ → H ₂ O + 2e ⁻ (6)

  The power generation device 1 includes a secondary battery, a DC / DC converter, and the like, and the electric energy obtained by the power generation of the fuel cell 6 is charged in the secondary battery or used as a power source for the electronic device main body. The DC / DC converter converts the voltage into an appropriate voltage in the charging process from the fuel cell 6 to the secondary battery, the power supply process from the fuel cell 6 to the electronic device body, and the power supply process from the secondary battery to the electronic device body. Is.

The vaporizer 4 will be described in detail.
2 is a cross-sectional view showing the vaporizer 4, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line III-III in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the vaporizer 4 includes a housing 20, a droplet discharge head 30 provided inside the housing 20, and provided inside the housing 20 and facing the droplet discharge head 30. The provided absorbent sheet 70 and a heater 80 for heating the absorbent sheet 70 are provided.

  The housing 20 is provided in a tubular shape. Specifically, the housing 20 is formed by, for example, assembling four rectangular glass plates 21 to 24 into a rectangular frame shape and bonding them by anodic bonding. The housing 20 is not made of glass but may be made of a metal material such as stainless steel, aluminum or the like, may be made of polyimide, polycarbonate or other resin material, or is made of a ceramic material, a silicon material or other material. It may be a thing. The housing 20 does not have to be assembled by joining, and may be manufactured by casting, molding, or other processing methods. However, it is desirable that the material constituting the housing 20 has heat resistance and corrosion resistance.

  One end of the housing 20 in the longitudinal direction is an upstream portion 25, and the other end in the longitudinal direction is a downstream portion 26. The droplet discharge head 30 is disposed between the upstream portion 25 and the downstream portion 26 of the housing 20, and the space in the housing 20 is divided into a region on the upstream portion 25 side and a region on the downstream portion 26 side by the droplet discharge head 30. It has been. Further, the absorption sheet 70 is disposed on the downstream portion 26 side of the droplet discharge head 30, and the space on the downstream portion 26 side of the droplet discharge head 30 is separated from the region on the droplet discharge head 30 side and the downstream portion by the absorption sheet 70. It is divided into areas on the 26th side.

  The droplet discharge head 30 is attached to the housing 20. Specifically, a circumferential mounting groove is formed on the inner surface of the housing 20, and the edge of the droplet discharge head 30 is fitted into the mounting groove. The wiring 60 penetrates the housing 20 and is electrically connected to the droplet discharge head 30, and a signal is given to the droplet discharge head 30 through the wiring 60, so that the droplet discharge head 30 performs a discharge operation.

  The droplet discharge head 30 is an application of an inkjet head used in a so-called inkjet printer or the like. The droplet discharge head 30 may be a thermal jet (bubble jet) droplet discharge head, a piezoelectric droplet discharge head, or an electrostatic droplet discharge head. It may be.

  The droplet discharge head 30 discharges the liquid sent from the storage container 2 as droplets toward the absorption sheet 70. Here, the droplet discharge head 30 is configured to discharge droplets intermittently. The droplet discharge timing, period, and the like of the droplet discharge head 30 are controlled by a driver.

  Specifically, the droplet discharge head 30 includes a manifold portion 31 and an orifice plate 32 provided on the manifold portion 31. A plurality of discharge ports 33 are formed in the orifice plate 32, and the droplet discharge head 30 is attached to the housing 20 so that the orifice plate 32 and the absorption sheet 70 face each other. An inlet port 34 opened on the upstream portion 25 side and a channel 35 communicating with the inlet port 34 are formed in the manifold portion 31, and the orifice plate 32 is joined to the manifold portion 31 so as to cover the channel 35. ing. The discharge port 33 communicates with the channel 35.

  In the manifold portion 31, actuators that discharge droplets from the discharge ports 33 are provided corresponding to the discharge ports 33. When the droplet discharge head 30 is a piezoelectric droplet discharge head, the actuator is a piezo element, and when the droplet discharge head 30 is a thermal jet droplet discharge head, the actuator is a heating resistor. When the droplet discharge head 30 is an electrostatic droplet discharge head, the actuator is an electrostatic electrode. In the case of a piezo element, a droplet is discharged from the discharge port 33 by deformation of the piezo element, and in the case of a heating resistor, heat is applied to the liquid by the heating resistor and the heating resistor and When film boiling occurs at the liquid contact portion, a droplet is discharged from the discharge port 33. In the case of an electrostatic electrode, the liquid is charged by the electrostatic electrode, and the droplet is discharged from the discharge port 33. The Since an actuator is provided independently for each discharge port 33, droplets are discharged independently from each discharge port 33.

  FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view when the droplet discharge head 30 is a thermal jet type droplet discharge head. Here, for the sake of convenience, a configuration related to one discharge port 33 is shown. As shown in FIG. 4, an inlet port 34 passes through the silicon substrate 41 serving as the base of the manifold portion 31, and the thin film wiring 42 is patterned on the silicon substrate 41, and the heating resistor 43 is also patterned. Yes. Then, a heat resistant resin layer 44 is formed on the thin film wiring 42, a channel 35 is recessed in the heat resistant resin layer 44, and the heating resistor 43 is exposed in the channel 35. The orifice plate 32 is bonded to the heat resistant resin layer 44, and the discharge port 33 formed in the orifice plate 32 is opposed to the heating resistor 43. For example, a Ta—Si—O—N material composed of Ta, Si, O, and N is used as the material of the heating resistor 43, and Au, WTi, or the like is used as the material of the thin film wiring 42. . For example, polyimide is used as the material of the heat resistant resin layer 44.

An example of a method for manufacturing the droplet discharge head 30 shown in FIG. 4 will be described.
A silicon substrate 41 as a wafer is prepared. Here, the silicon substrate 41 is preferably a square or rectangular flat plate having a diagonal of 4 inches or more. A thin film such as a Ta—Si—O—N material and a thin film such as Au and WTi are formed on one surface of the silicon substrate 41, and a thin film such as Au and WTi is patterned by photolithography and etching. 42 is formed, and a heating resistor 43 is formed by patterning a thin film such as a Ta—Si—O—N material. Next, a heat-resistant resin layer 44 such as photosensitive polyimide is formed with a thickness of about 12 μm, and the heat-resistant resin layer 44 is exposed and developed to form a channel 35 in the heat-resistant resin layer 44. When the heat resistant resin layer 44 is baked at 300 to 400 ° C. for 1 to 2 hours, the thickness of the heat resistant resin layer 44 becomes 10 μm. The inlet port 34 is formed by etching or sandblasting the silicon substrate 41. Next, the orifice plate 32 (the discharge port 33 is not yet formed) is joined from above the heat resistant resin layer 44. For example, a polyimide thin film is interposed between the heat resistant resin layer 44 and the orifice plate 32, and the orifice plate 32 is thermocompression bonded to the heat resistant resin layer 44 at 200 to 300 ° C. Next, a mask having a thickness of 0.5 to 1 μm is provided on the orifice plate 32, and the discharge port 33 is formed by etching the orifice plate 32 (for example, electron cyclotron resonance etching or other dry etching). Since the discharge port 33 is processed after joining the orifice plate 32, the productivity is much higher than when the discharge port 33 is processed before joining. Next, the silicon substrate 41 is cut into a predetermined size with a dicing saw or the like, and the droplet discharge head 30 is cut out. The numerical values such as temperature, time, thickness, etc. presented in the description of the manufacturing method of the droplet discharge head 30 are examples.

  The absorbent sheet 70 shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 is formed by forming a heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant absorbent material into a sheet shape, and absorbs the liquid droplets discharged from the liquid droplet discharge head 30 and reaching the absorption sheet 70. To do. As the absorbent sheet 70, for example, a sheet of glass wool formed in a sheet shape can be applied. Specifically, the absorbent sheet 70 may be glass wool paper or glass wool cloth, or may be made of an equivalent material other than glass wool paper or glass wool cloth. For example, a metal fiber sheet (for example, a metal fine wire knitted into a sheet), an inorganic material fiber sheet, or other fiber sheets may be used. Or you may use a porous body instead of a fibrous thing. As the porous body, for example, inorganic fibers such as acrylic fibers or organic fibers solidified with a binder (for example, epoxy resin), sintered inorganic powder, inorganic powder solidified with a binder, A mixture of graphite and glassy carbon, a bundle of a large number of yarns made of inorganic fibers or organic fibers, and hardened with a binder can be used. Here, the thickness of the absorbent sheet 70 is preferably in the range of 50 to 300 μm.

  The absorbent sheet 70 is attached to the housing 20. Specifically, for example, a circumferential mounting groove is formed on the inner surface of the housing 20, and the edge of the absorbent sheet 70 is fitted into the mounting groove. The absorption sheet 70 is provided substantially parallel to the surface of the droplet discharge head 30 on which the discharge ports 33 are formed.

  The heater 80 is provided in the housing 20. Specifically, the heater 80 is provided on the outer peripheral surface of the housing 20 at a position corresponding to the absorbent sheet 70 and on the downstream side of the position. The heater 80 may be a heating wire coil wound around the housing 20, or may be a thin-film heating pattern patterned on the outer peripheral surface of the housing 20. The heater 80 has a characteristic that its electric resistance changes depending on its temperature, and the heater 80 also functions as a temperature sensor that reads the temperature from the electric resistance value. The temperature based on the electric resistance value of the heater 80 is fed back to the temperature control circuit, and the heater 80 is controlled by the temperature control circuit based on the temperature. The location where the heater 80 is provided may not be the outer peripheral surface of the housing 20, may be provided on the inner peripheral surface of the housing 20, or may be provided directly on the absorbent sheet 70.

Next, the operation of the vaporizer 4 will be described.
When the liquid stored in the storage container 2 is sent to the vaporizer 4 and supplied to the upstream portion 25 of the housing 20, the liquid enters the inlet 34, and the inlet 34, the channel 35, the discharge The liquid is filled up to the outlet 33. Then, electric power is supplied to the heater 80 by the temperature control circuit, whereby the heater 80 generates heat, and the absorbent sheet 70 is heated by the heater 80. When the absorption sheet 70 is heated to a predetermined temperature, the droplet discharge head 30 performs a droplet discharge operation. That is, droplets are ejected from each ejection port 33 by an actuator (a heating resistor 43, a piezo element or an electrostatic electrode) provided corresponding to each ejection port 33, and the ejected droplets are applied to the absorbing sheet 70. Fly towards. The droplets that have landed on the absorbing sheet 70 spread and spread, and are further absorbed by the absorbing sheet 70. When the liquid absorbed in the absorbent sheet 70 is heated and reaches the boiling point or more, the phase changes from the liquid phase to the gas phase. The vaporized gas flows from the absorption sheet 70 to the downstream portion 26 and further flows into the reaction device 5.

  When the liquid is vaporized in the absorption sheet 70, the pressure on the downstream side of the droplet discharge head 30 is increased, and the liquid level at the discharge port 33 becomes a concave meniscus recessed into the discharge port 33 due to the pressure. End up. Therefore, a pressurizer (for example, a pump) may be installed on the upstream side of the droplet discharge head 30, and the liquid supplied to the droplet discharge head 30 may be pressurized by the pressurizer. By doing so, a convex meniscus is formed on the liquid surface at the discharge port 33 so as to protrude out of the discharge port 33. Further, a pressure sensor is provided in the housing 20 between the droplet discharge head 30 and the absorption sheet 70, and the pressure in the space between the droplet discharge head 30 and the absorption sheet 70 is detected by the pressure sensor, The detected pressure may be input to the control unit, and the control unit may control the pressurizer based on the detected pressure. By doing in this way, an appropriate pressure is given to the liquid with respect to the atmospheric pressure between the droplet discharge head 30 and the absorption sheet 70. In addition, you may use the supply device 3 as a pressurizer.

According to the present embodiment, the liquid droplets ejected by the liquid droplet ejection head 30 are absorbed by the absorption sheet 70, so that they do not flow downstream of the absorption sheet 70 as liquid.
Further, since the liquid droplets are absorbed by the absorption sheet 70 and the liquid droplets are captured by the absorption sheet 70, bumping hardly occurs and nucleate boiling hardly occurs, and the liquid is stably vaporized stably by the absorption sheet 70. . In particular, since the liquid droplets land on the absorbing sheet 70 and the liquid droplets uniformly spread, heat is easily applied to the liquid, and the liquid evaporates efficiently and stably. Since the liquid is stably vaporized, the liquid that has not been vaporized does not flow downstream with the vaporized gas.

  Since the absorbent sheet 70 is in the form of a sheet, liquid or gas does not swell inside, and therefore, when the liquid absorbed in the absorbent sheet 70 expands in the course of vaporization, the liquid suddenly comes out of the absorbent sheet 70. Difficult to erupt. Therefore, stable evaporation occurs.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various improvements and design changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
For example, in the above embodiment, the reactor 5 is provided in the power generator 1, but the fuel cell 6 is a mixture of fuel (mainly methanol) vaporized by the vaporizer 4 and water without the reactor 5. The fuel electrode 7 may be supplied. In this case, in the fuel electrode 7 of the fuel cell 6, the fuel and water react with hydrogen ions, electrons, and carbon dioxide, and the hydrogen ions are conducted to the air electrode 9 through the electrolyte membrane 8, and in the air electrode 9, Produces water.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the fuel and water are stored in the storage container 2 in the mixed state, two storage containers 2 are provided, fuel is supplied to one storage container 2, and water is supplied to the other storage container 2. It may be stored. In this case, it is assumed that fuel and water are mixed on the upstream side of the vaporizer 4 and the mixed liquid is sent to the vaporizer 4. Alternatively, two vaporizers 4 are provided, fuel in one storage container 2 is sent to one vaporizer 4 and vaporized by the vaporizer 4, and water in the other storage container 2 is vaporized in the other vaporizer 4. It is good also as what is sent to the reaction apparatus 5, after vaporizing with the vaporizer | carburetor 4 and mixing the vaporized fuel and water.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, although the vaporizer 4 was used for the electric power generating apparatus 1, you may utilize the vaporizer 4 for another use.

Hereinafter, the vaporizer 4 will be described in more detail with specific numerical values.
The thickness of the droplet discharge head 30 (thickness from the surface where the discharge port 33 is formed to the opposite surface) is 0.8 mm, and the horizontal and vertical widths of the droplet discharge head 30 are 5.00 mm. The distribution density of the discharge ports 33 is 600 dpi, the inner diameter (diameter) of the discharge ports 33 is 22 μm, the thickness of the orifice plate 32 is 17 μm, the depth of the channel 35 is 10 μm, and the size of the heating resistor 43 is 25 μm □ And the interval between the absorbing sheet 70 and the droplet discharge head 30 is 5 mm. The number of ejection ports 33 formed in the droplet ejection head 30 is 100. The heater 80 has a width of 5 mm and a thickness of 100 μm.

  Under the above conditions, when the droplet discharge head 30 is operated with a drive frequency of 10 kHz, a pulse width of 1 μsec, and a duty ratio of 1/100, 4 pl of droplets are discharged from one discharge port 33 at a time. The particle size is 20 μm. When the number of the discharge ports 33 is 100 and droplets are sequentially discharged from the discharge ports 33 one by one, the amount of liquid hitting the absorbing sheet 70 per unit time is 4 μl / sec. Further, the discharge speed of the droplet is 20 m / sec, and the droplet landed on the absorbing sheet 70 5 mm ahead spreads to 70 μm. At this time, an operation chart of the droplet discharge head 30 is shown in FIG. As is apparent from FIG. 5, the driving frequency is 10 kHz, the pulse width is 1 μsec, and the duty ratio is 1/100 every ten ejection ports 33.

  As described above, the amount of liquid hitting the absorbent sheet 70 per unit time is 4 μl / sec, and a gas having a flow rate equal to that flows from the vaporizer 4 to the reaction device 5. This is 2.2 μl / sec or more, which is the amount of fuel required to be charged from the vaporizer 4 to the reactor 5, so that the required amount can be ensured. The required input amount is obtained as follows. That is, 12 W of power is required to operate the electronic device on which the power generation device 1 is mounted, and 141 sccm of hydrogen is required for the fuel cell 6 to obtain this power. In order to obtain 141 sccm of hydrogen, when the reforming reaction in the reformer of the reactor 5 is the reaction formula (1), the flow rate of the mixed gas generated by the reformer of the reactor 5 to the downstream is The fuel / water mixed gas of only 130 μl / min (= 2.2 / sec) needs to be supplied from the vaporizer 4 to the reaction apparatus 5. The ratio of water vapor to carbon (water vapor / carbon) in the mixed gas of fuel and water was 1.2.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the power generation device. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the vaporizer. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line III-III shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a vaporizer. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an operation chart of the droplet discharge device of the vaporizer.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Power generation device 20 Housing 30 Droplet discharge head 33 Discharge port 43 Heating resistor 70 Absorption sheet

Claims (11)

A liquid droplet discharge device that is supplied with liquid and discharges the liquid as liquid droplets in one direction;
An absorber that is provided opposite to the one-direction side of the droplet discharge device and absorbs the droplet discharged from the droplet discharge device;
A heater for heating the absorbent;
With
A vaporizer characterized by vaporizing the droplets absorbed by the absorbent material by the heated absorbent material and discharging it to the one side of the absorbent material.   The vaporizer according to claim 1, wherein the absorbent material is provided in a sheet shape. A housing,
The droplet discharge device and the absorber are provided in the housing opposite to each other, the liquid is supplied from the other side of the housing, and the vaporized gas is discharged from the one side of the housing. The vaporizer according to claim 1 or 2, wherein   The vaporizer according to claim 3, wherein the heater is externally mounted on the housing.   5. The liquid droplet ejection device according to claim 1, further comprising: a plurality of ejection ports and an actuator that is provided corresponding to each ejection port and ejects liquid droplets from the ejection ports. 6. The vaporizer according to one item.   The vaporizer according to claim 5, wherein the actuator is a heating resistor.   The vaporizer according to claim 5, wherein the actuator is a piezo element.   The vaporizer according to claim 5, wherein the actuator is an electrostatic electrode for charging the liquid.   The vaporizer according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the droplet discharge device discharges the droplet intermittently. In the driving method of the vaporizer for vaporizing and discharging the supplied liquid,
Supplying the liquid to a droplet discharge device, and intermittently discharging the liquid as a droplet from the droplet discharge device in one direction;
Causing the absorbent material to absorb the liquid droplets that have reached the absorbent material provided facing the one-direction side of the liquid droplet ejection device;
A vaporizer drive control method, wherein the absorbent is heated by a heater to vaporize the droplets absorbed by the absorbent, and the vaporized gas is discharged to the one side of the absorbent. . A container that stores fuel, a droplet discharge device that is supplied with the fuel from the container and discharges the fuel as droplets in one direction, and is provided facing the one direction side of the droplet discharge device And an absorber that absorbs the droplets discharged and reached from the droplet discharge device, and a heater that heats the absorber, and is absorbed by the absorber by the heated absorber. A vaporizer that vaporizes the droplets and discharges it to the one side of the absorber;
A fuel cell that generates electricity by an electrochemical reaction using the vaporized fuel discharged by the vaporizer; and
A power generation device comprising:

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