JPH04190567A - Fuel cell power generation plant - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a device compact and of a low cost by installing manifolds to cell stacks through a plural takeout seats of a sufficiently small diameter to the manifold diameter and of a uniform mouth diameter respectively. CONSTITUTION:Air inlet manifolds 33 and air outlet manifolds 36 are installed to a plural rows of cell stacks 1 through a plural inlet takeout seats 38 or outlet takeout seats 39 of a sufficiently small diameter to the manifold diameter and of a uniform bore diameter respectively. Piping systems composed for different transfer mediums separately are thus stacked in order of the bore diameter form a cooling water piping system, a fuel gas piping system, and an air piping system in such a way that the pipings do not interfere with each other. A compact and low cost fuel cell power generation plant can thus be composed, and a flow of air, fuel gas and cooling water can be distributed uniformly at a low pressure loss.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a fuel cell power generation plant located in a suburban area of a city that is suitable for electric power business.

(Prior Art) A large-capacity fuel cell power generation plant of MW class (megawatt class) or higher used for electric power business is composed of a plurality of cell stacks. For example, in an OMW class power generation plant, 18 700 KW class battery stacks are arranged in three rows of six stacks per row.

Figure 2 consists of a large number of piping, piping parts, and other parts that supply and discharge air, fuel gas, and cooling water to each of the three battery stacks 1 on one side among the six battery stacks in a row. Shows the piping system.

In the figure, each battery stack 1 is connected to an air pipe 11 that supplies air as an oxidizing agent to the battery air electrode. A reducer 12 is inserted into each air pipe 11. Each cell stack 1 is also connected to a fuel gas pipe 13 that supplies and discharges hydrogen-rich reformed gas obtained by reforming hydrocarbon fuel to the fuel electrode. A reducer] 2 is also inserted into each fuel gas pipe 13.

The battery stack 1 is constructed by inserting cooling plates at appropriate intervals between blocks of a plurality of stacked unit batteries, and coolant such as cooling water is supplied to and discharged from these cooling plates. A reducer 12 is also inserted into the cooling water pipe 14.

Other piping includes purge gas supply and exhaust piping to purge fuel gas leaking into the space of the battery stack container, and drain discharge piping to drain drain water that collects at the bottom of the battery stack container (both not shown). , reducers are also inserted in these pipes.

Each of the above pipings has a different diameter, and it is necessary to evenly distribute the flow rate to the six battery stacks 1 in one row.
Each time the pipe is distributed, branched, or merged, the pipe size is reduced or increased to an appropriate diameter, so the pipe is connected via the reducer 12.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) In the above, the length of the piping route i to each battery stack 1 is significantly different, and the resistance of each piping is also different.
Instruments etc. are required. In addition, in order to form the piping route for installing them, the installation space and volume of the piping system will increase, such as securing piping elbows and straight pipes of appropriate length, increasing the space factor, especially for air and fuel In gas piping systems, this is a bad influence on designs that reduce compressor capacity due to lower pressure loss, and is a factor in increasing overall costs.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks in the prior art, and includes factors that increase the installation space and volume of the piping system of a fuel cell stack, piping materials for the same, and
Eliminate the negative effects of cost increase factors such as increased processing man-hours,
The objective is to provide a compact, low-cost fuel cell power generation plant.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, a fuel cell power generation plant of the present invention includes a fuel cell stack system and peripheral equipment including an air pressurization system, a fuel processing system, and a cooling subsystem. In a fuel cell power generation plant, multiple battery stacks are designed and manufactured to have the same pressure drop between the inlet and outlet, and two or three lines each of the air piping system, fuel gas piping system, and cooling water piping system are installed. an inlet header that evenly distributes the flow rate to the group of battery stacks, a manifold that equalizes the pressure to evenly distribute the flow rate to the battery stacks of each series, a piping reducer that connects these headers and manifolds, and a pipe reducer that connects these headers and manifolds; A manifold extraction seat is inserted between the manifold and each battery stack, and has a sufficiently small diameter and the same diameter as these manifold diameters,
The present invention is characterized by comprising a battery stack pallet in which the manifolds are stacked in a stacked structure within a range of battery stack diameters.

(Function) As described above, according to the present invention, a compact and low-cost fuel cell power generation plant can be configured, and the flow rates of air, fuel gas, and cooling water can be evenly distributed with low pressure loss.

(Example) Next, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 shows an IOM that uses 12 battery stacks with an electric capacity of 1,000KW per unit, and has a configuration of 4 units per row x 3 rows.
This shows an example of a W-class power plant. Figure 1 (A) shows the cooling water piping system, Figure 1 (B) shows the fuel gas piping system, and Figure 1 (B) shows the fuel gas piping system.
C) shows the air piping system. Moreover, FIG. 1(D) is a DD arrow view when the piping systems of FIG. 1(A) to (C) are stacked in order from the top.

In FIG. 1(A), the cooling water inlet header 2 and the three cooling water inlet manifolds 3 are connected by cooling water inlet header-manifold reducers 4, respectively. The same applies to the outlet side, and the cooling water outlet header 5 and the three cooling water outlet manifolds 6 are connected by respective cooling water outlet header-to-manifold reducers 7. The cooling water inlet manifold 3 and the cooling water outlet manifold 6 are connected to four units in each row through four artificial extraction dust or outlet extraction pressures 9 that are sufficiently smaller in diameter than the manifold diameter and have the same diameter. - Attached to battery stack 1.

In FIG. 1(B), fuel gas inlet headers 22 and 3
The two fuel gas inlet manifolds 23 are connected by fuel gas inlet header-to-manifold reducers 24, respectively. The same goes for the outlet side, between the fuel gas outlet header 25 and the three fuel gas outlet manifolds 26.
They are connected by a reducer 27 between the fuel gas outlet header and the manifold. The fuel gas inlet manifold 23 and the fuel gas outlet manifold 26 are connected to each row through four inlet weir outlets 28 or four outlet outlet ports 29 that are sufficiently smaller than the manifold diameter and have the same diameter. It is attached to four battery stacks 1.

In FIG. 1C, the air inlet header 32 and the three air inlet manifolds 33 are connected by air inlet header-manifold register users 34, respectively. The same goes for the outlet side, and the air outlet header 35 and the three air outlet manifolds 36 are connected by air outlet header-manifold reducers 37, respectively. Air inlet manifold 33 and air outlet manifold 3
6 means that the battery stacks 1 are attached to four battery stacks 1 in each row through four inlet weir outlets 38 or outlet outlet pressures 39 that are sufficiently smaller in diameter than those manifold diameters and have the same diameter. There is.

In the present invention, the piping systems configured for each transfer medium as described above are arranged in descending order of diameter, and the cooling water piping system (
Figure 1 (A)), fuel gas piping system (Figure 1 (B))
, and the air piping system (Fig. 1 (C)), and construct them so that the piping does not interfere with each other.

In this case, a collection drain pipe 4 collects and drains the drain water accumulated at the bottom of each battery stack container 1 into one pipe for each row.
0 or below the lowest center of each row of battery stacks so as not to interfere with other pipes and at an angle.

Next, the operation of the plant of the present invention will be explained using the fuel gas piping system shown in FIG. 1(B) as an example.
22 to three fuel gas inlet manifolds 2 via a fuel gas inlet header-manifold reducer 24.
The pressure is equalized by dividing the flow into four battery stacks 1 in each row.
will be distributed evenly. The same goes for the outlet side, and the fuel gas discharged from each cell stack 1 flows through the fuel gas outlet manifold 26 of each row and the fuel gas outlet header/manifold reducer 27, and after merging at the fuel gas outlet manifold 25, the fuel gas is discharged from the common fuel gas outlet manifold 26. is discharged from one pipe.

In this case, the four inlet weir outlets 28 and the outlet pressure 29 in each row are sufficiently smaller in diameter than the diameters of the fuel gas inlet manifold 23 and the fuel gas outlet manifold 25, and have the same diameter. Since it has the same pressure drop and the same conditions as stack 1, it enables equal flow distribution.

Note that the cooling water piping system shown in FIG. 1A and the air piping system shown in FIG.

3 and 4 illustrate battery stack pallets for installing the piping system around the battery stack in the plant of the invention described above.

In these figures, the pallet mount 4 on which the battery stacks 1 of 4 batteries in 1 row x 3 rows are installed is provided with a floor intermediate section 42, on which are stacked piping headers 35, 25, 5, manifolds 3, 23 and 33 are preassembled and installed at the -L site, and after completing inspections such as airtightness tests as a pallet unit, they are transported to the site as semi-finished products.

The piping system, which has been pre-assembled as a pallet structure in this way, is transported and installed to the site as a whole or divided into appropriate sizes, and 12 battery stacks are installed on the pallet frame 1. The outlet piping seat of the battery stack 1 extends to the vicinity of the floor surface of the pedestal 41,
with the piping side joint seat installed on the pallet frame 3] side,
Complete the installation by connecting each pipe.

In conventional fuel cell power plants, for example, air
In a fuel gas piping system, when distributing air and fuel gas to each battery stack evenly and with low pressure loss, the pressure drop varies depending on the piping route, so orifices, valves, instruments, etc. are used to adjust this. Therefore, in addition to changing the piping route, the route length became longer, the installation volume increased, and the cost increased.In the present invention, each piping system is equipped with a piping header, a pressure equalizing manifold, and fewer reducers. Since the above-mentioned disadvantages of the conventional technology are eliminated, the battery stack/pallet that occupies a large proportion of the entire plant can be realized compactly and at low cost, thus creating a compact and low-cost fuel cell power generation plant. can be configured.

Note that although the above embodiment is an example of a configuration of 4 battery stacks/rows x 3 rows, the same electric capacity (KW) can be achieved even if the total voltage is set high and the current is reduced respectively.
It may be configured with 6 battery stacks/row x 2 rows. In this case, the battery stack pallet has a pallet structure that is longer in the longitudinal direction by two battery stacks than in FIG. 3, and narrower in the perpendicular direction by one row of battery stacks.

The embodiment shown in Fig. 5 uses a circular manifold, which is similar to a household gas stove, as a pressure equalizing manifold.
A schematic view of one unit is shown in which four battery studs 1 are arranged on each of the annular manifolds of the unit, and FIG. 6 shows a stacked state of the annular manifolds for one unit.

In these figures, an air inlet annular manifold 53 is connected to the air inlet branch pipe 52 via an air pipe elbow 54 . Further, an air outlet annular manifold 56 is connected to the air outlet branch pipe 55 via an air pipe elbow 57.

A fuel gas inlet annular manifold 63 is connected to the fuel gas inlet branch pipe 62 via a fuel gas pipe elbow. Further, a fuel gas outlet annular manifold 66 is connected to the fuel gas outlet branch pipe 65 via a fuel gas plumber.

A cooling water inlet annular manifold 73 is connected to the cooling water inlet branch pipe 72 via a cooling water plumber. Further, the cooling water outlet branch pipe 75 is connected to the cooling water outlet annular manifold 76 or through a cooling water pipe elbow.

The air population annular manifold 53, the fuel gas inlet annular manifold 63, the cooling water inlet annular manifold 73, the air outlet annular manifold 56, the fuel gas outlet annular manifold 66, and the cooling water outlet annular manifold 76,
battery stack] are arranged concentrically within the range of the diameter of the battery stack and in a stacked manner so that they can be connected perpendicularly to the battery stack joint piping seat;
It is connected to four battery stacks 1 installed above them via ejection seats 58, 68, 78, 59°69.79. Each of these extraction seats 58, 68, 78, 59, 6
9.79 is sufficiently smaller in diameter than the diameter of the annular manifold, and has the same diameter for the four battery stacks 1 in the same unit.

Note that the air inlet annular manifold 53, the fuel gas inlet annular manifold 63, and the cooling water inlet annular manifold 73
are dimensioned so that the annular diameter increases in this order,
They are stacked in concentric circles. Further, the air outlet annular manifold 56, the fuel gas outlet annular manifold 66, and the cooling water outlet annular manifold 76 are dimensioned so that the annular diameters decrease in this order, and are stacked concentrically. .

Next, the operation of the embodiment having the above configuration will be explained by taking an air piping system as an example.

In this embodiment, one of the three air inlet branch pipes 52 branched from the air supply main pipe (not shown),
The air is guided onto the air inlet ring manifold 53 and connected to the manifold outlet seat across the piping elbow 54, and when the air is led to the ring manifold 53, it is connected to the ring manifold 53, which has a considerable air volume. The air is pressure-equalized in 53 and passed through a sufficiently small aperture to remove the dust.
The air is supplied to the air electrode via the air manifold in each battery stack. The air whose oxygen has been partially consumed is led to the air outlet branch pipe 55 through a path in the opposite direction to that described above on the outlet side.
is discharged to.

The same applies to the fuel gas piping system and the cooling water piping system.

The above embodiment is an example in which three units of the annular manifolds shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 are arranged independently on a plane, but as another modification, these annular manifold units The installation area can be further reduced by stacking them to form a three-tiered hierarchical structure.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Conventional piping systems around battery stacks, which consist of piping, piping sections, and accessories, have different pressure drops due to the different piping routes to each battery stack, so adjustment means are needed to evenly distribute the flow rate to each battery stack. Therefore, an additional pressure drop element was added, which increased the installation volume and cost in a cat-and-mouse game.However, in the present invention, these conventional piping systems have been modified to include piping headers, linear or annular pressure equalizing manifolds, In addition, each manifold has a sufficiently small diameter compared to the manifold diameter, and can be taken into the battery stack through multiple extraction dust of the same diameter. This eliminates the need to adjust pressure drop factors such as different piping routes and adding flow rate adjustment means, making the entire battery stack/pallet more compact and inexpensive, and as a result, it is possible to construct a compact and inexpensive fuel cell power generation plant. can.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1 (A), (B), and (C) show a cooling water piping system, a fuel gas piping system, and a fuel gas piping system around the battery stack in the present invention.
FIG. 1 (D) is an explanatory diagram of the division of the air piping system by transmission medium. D arrow view, Figure 2 is a piping system diagram of a conventional battery stack, Figure 3
The figure is a front view of a battery stack/pallet showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 4 is a side view of the battery stack/pallet shown in Fig. 3, and Fig. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention. ,
FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the annular manifold in FIG. 5. FIG. 1...Battery stack, 2...Cooling water inlet header,
3... Cooling water inlet manifold, 4, 7... Register user, 5... Cooling water outlet header, 6... Cooling water out Roman manifold, 8... Cooling water inlet Roman manifold extraction seat, 9...・Cooling water outlet romanifold intake seat, 22...Fuel gas inlet rohenoder, 23...Fuel gas inlet manifold, 24.27.Reducer, 25...Fuel gas outlet header, 26...Fuel gas outlet manifold, 2
8. Fuel gas inlet manifold extraction seat, 29... Fuel gas outlet manifold intake seat, 32... Air inlet header, 33... Air inlet manifold, 34° 37...
Reducer, 35...Air outlet header, 36...Air outlet manifold, 38...Romani-bold intake seat for air, 39...Romani-fold intake seat for air, 40
...collective drainage piping, 41...pallet mount, 42.
- Floor middle part, 52... Air inlet branch piping, 53...
Air inlet annular manifold, 54.57 Air piping elbow, 55 Air outlet branch piping, 56 Air outlet annular manifold, 58, 59, 68° 69.78
．． 79...Mounting seat, 62...Fuel gas inlet branch pipe, 63...Fuel gas inlet circular manifold, 65...
Fuel gas outlet branch piping, 66... Fuel gas outlet annular manifold, 72... Cooling water inlet branch piping, 73... Cooling water inlet annular manifold, 75... Cooling water outlet branch piping, 76... Cooling water Outlet annular manifold. Applicant's agent Mr. Sato

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a fuel cell power plant equipped with a fuel cell stack system and peripheral equipment that includes an air pressurization system, fuel processing system, and cooling subsystem, multiple units are designed and manufactured to have the same pressure drop between the inlet and outlet. An inlet header that equally distributes the battery stack, air piping system, fuel gas piping system, and cooling water piping system to two or three series of battery stack groups, and equally distributes the flow rate to each battery stack in each series. A manifold that equalizes the pressure, a piping reducer that connects these headers and manifolds, and a piping reducer that is installed between each series of manifolds and each battery stack, and that is sufficiently small and of the same diameter as the manifold diameter. 1. A fuel cell power generation plant comprising: a manifold extraction seat; and a battery stack pallet in which the manifolds are stacked in a stacked structure within a range of a battery stack diameter.