Internal structure of humidifier for hydrogen fuel cell stack

Abstract

The present invention provides an internal structure of a humidifier for a hydrogen fuel cell stack. A dry air inlet is provided to allow dry air to enter a hollow tubular membrane. Moisture enters a humidifier housing from a moisture outlet, enters the inner tube from micropores of an inner tube, and contacts the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane. At this time, the moisture humidifies the dry air on the other side of the membrane. The humidified moisture is discharged from the moisture outlet. The humidified dry air enters the hydrogen fuel cell stack from the dry air outlet, thereby achieving the purpose of humidifying the dry air inside the hollow tubular membrane. By means of an annular internal airflow channel and an arc-shaped inner tube, moisture can first reach the inner tube surface relatively evenly, and then enter the inner tube through the micropores, thereby greatly improving the uniformity of moisture, and can improve the performance by more than 30% relative to the traditional structure, and greatly reducing the manufacturing cost.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the field of hydrogen fuel cell stack humidification, and in particular to an internal structure of a humidifier for a hydrogen fuel cell stack. Background Art

[0002] As the ultimate energy source for mankind, hydrogen fuel has entered the human vision as early as the mid-20th century. The United States used related technologies in its moon landing program as early as the 1960s. Since the 21st century, automotive hydrogen fuel technology has made great progress and development, but its core components and core technologies are only mastered by a few foreign companies. In order to break the monopoly, the country has continuously increased its investment in hydrogen fuel cells in recent years.

[0003] A hydrogen fuel cell is an electrochemical device that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, water and heat. The fuel cell stack takes in hydrogen and (oxygen) air and exhausts high-temperature water vapor.

[0004] Air is input into the fuel cell stack driven by the air compressor. At this time, the temperature of the air at the compressor outlet is very high. After cooling, it can still reach 60-90°C, and the relative humidity is extremely low at this time. The humidifier for the hydrogen fuel cell stack is a device that adds humidity to the dry air at this time.

[0005] Most hydrogen fuel cell stacks need to maintain a certain humidity inside to work properly. Currently, most hydrogen fuel cell stacks use humidifiers to humidify the gas entering the stack to maintain the humidity inside the stack. Therefore, the humidifier has become one of the indispensable components of the hydrogen fuel cell stack and plays an important role in the operation of the entire stack. The internal structure of the humidifier is the key factor that determines the performance of the humidifier.

[0006] A humidifier is generally packaged by a plate membrane of sufficient area or a sufficient number of hollow tubular membranes. Taking the hollow tubular membrane as an example, the number of membrane tubes in an ordinary 30-60KW hydrogen fuel cell humidifier can reach 4000-6000, which are packaged with materials such as epoxy resin or polyurethane. Here we mainly take the hollow tubular membrane humidifier as an example to illustrate.

[0007] The working principle of the hollow tube membrane humidifier is that dry air passes through the inside of the membrane, and the high-temperature water vapor discharged by the battery stack passes through the outside of the membrane. The water vapor passes through the membrane to humidify the dry air inside. After the membrane material is finalized, how to use an effective internal structure for packaging is the key to improving performance. Therefore, the factors affecting the performance of the humidifier are divided into two major points: one is the performance of the membrane itself, which includes the membrane material, the microstructure design of the membrane, and the process influence, etc., which determine the humidification performance of the membrane itself; the second is the layout of the internal structure of the humidifier. Due to the large scale of the membrane tube, how to reasonably arrange the internal structure of the humidifier has become a key factor affecting performance.

[0008] At present, some common hollow tube membrane humidifiers have hollow tube membranes directly arranged in the humidifier shell. When moisture comes in, it immediately contacts the outer wall of the hollow tube membrane. The structure is simple, but the airflow uniformity is poor, which affects the humidification performance. Another method is to use partitioning to divide the internal hollow tube membrane into several groups, which are installed in their own inner tubes. The inner tubes are sealed in the humidifier shell in advance. When moisture comes in, it enters the inner tube through the "window" on the inner tube. The unevenness of the moisture airflow is improved by using the partitioning method, but the airflow entering the window has obvious directionality, resulting in large differences in the airflow conditions in each inner tube. For hollow tube membranes, there is still an uneven problem. Therefore, it is very important to solve the above problems. Summary of the invention

[0009] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an internal structure of a humidifier for a hydrogen fuel cell stack, in which a dry air inlet is provided for dry air to enter the hollow tubular membrane, moisture enters the humidifier shell from the moisture outlet, enters the inner tube from the micropores of the inner tube and contacts the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane, at which time the moisture humidifies the dry air on the other side of the membrane, and the moisture after humidification is discharged from the moisture outlet, and the humidified dry air enters the hydrogen fuel cell stack after coming out from the dry air outlet, thereby achieving the purpose of humidifying the dry air inside the hollow tubular membrane, through the annular internal airflow channel and the arc-shaped inner tube, the moisture can first reach the surface of the inner tube relatively evenly, and then enter the inner tube through the micropores, which greatly improves the uniformity of the moisture, can improve the performance by more than 30% compared with the traditional structure, greatly reduces the manufacturing cost, and solves the problems in the background technology.

[0010] The purpose of the present invention is to provide an internal structure of a humidifier for a hydrogen fuel cell stack, comprising a humidifier shell, a wet air inlet is arranged on the top of the humidifier shell, two rows of inner tubes are arranged in the humidifier shell, the cross section of the inner tube is in a longitudinal elliptical shape, the inner surface of the humidifier shell is in an arc shape, and the distance between the inner tube and the inner surface of the humidifier shell is / of the diameter of the wet air inlet; the left and right end surfaces of the inner tube are connected and sealed with the two ends of the humidifier shell by end surface resin; a hollow tubular membrane is arranged in the inner tube; micropores are distributed on the surfaces of the two ends of the inner tube, and each micropore is a Independent channels, the air flow will evenly enter the inner tube from the micropores and contact the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane; the top of the humidifier shell is provided with a moisture inlet and a moisture outlet for moisture outlet; a sealed partition is provided in the middle of the humidifier shell to separate the humidifier shell into left and right parts, and the moisture inlet and the moisture outlet are on both sides of the partition; moisture enters the humidifier shell from the moisture inlet, enters the inner tube from the micropores of the inner tube and contacts the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane, thereby achieving the purpose of humidifying the dry air inside the hollow tubular membrane.

[0011] A further improvement is that the diameter of the micropores is between 2-6 mm and the porosity of the micropores is 30%.

[0012] A further improvement is that the left and right ends of the hollow tubular membrane extend outside the inner tube, and the left and right ends of the hollow tubular membrane are also located outside the end face resin. A dry air inlet and a dry air outlet are respectively provided on the left and right sides of the humidifier shell. Dry air enters the hollow tubular membrane through the dry air inlet, and moisture enters the humidifier shell from the moisture inlet, enters the inner tube from the micropores of the inner tube and contacts the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane. At this time, the moisture humidifies the dry air on the other side of the membrane. The moisture after humidification is discharged from the moisture outlet, and the humidified dry air comes out from the dry air outlet and enters the hydrogen fuel cell stack.

[0013] Beneficial effects of the present invention: the present invention provides a dry air inlet for dry air to enter the hollow tubular membrane, moisture enters the humidifier housing from the moisture outlet, enters the inner tube from the micropores of the inner tube and contacts the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane, at this time the moisture humidifies the dry air on the other side of the membrane, the moisture after humidification is discharged from the moisture outlet, the humidified dry air enters the hydrogen fuel cell stack after coming out of the dry air outlet, thereby achieving the purpose of humidifying the dry air inside the hollow tubular membrane, through the annular internal airflow channel and the arc-shaped inner tube, the moisture can first reach the surface of the inner tube relatively evenly, and then enter the inner tube through the micropores, which greatly improves the uniformity of the moisture, can improve the performance by more than 30% compared with the traditional structure, and greatly reduces the manufacturing cost. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the whole invention. (The arrow in the figure indicates the direction of air flow)

[0015] Figure 2 It is a cross-sectional schematic diagram of the present invention.

[0016] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of the micropores of the inner tube of the present invention.

[0017] Among them: 1-wet air inlet, 2-humidifier shell, 3-inner tube, 4-end face resin, 5-hollow tubular membrane, 6-micropores, 7-wet air outlet, 8-dry air inlet, 9-dry air outlet, 10-partition. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] In order to deepen the understanding of the present invention, the present invention will be further described in detail below in conjunction with examples. The examples are only used to explain the present invention and do not constitute a limitation on the protection scope of the present invention.

[0019] like Figure 1-3As shown, this embodiment provides an internal structure of a humidifier for a hydrogen fuel cell stack, including a humidifier housing 2, a wet air inlet 1 is arranged on the top of the humidifier housing 2, and two rows of inner tubes 3 are distributed in the humidifier housing 2, the cross section of the inner tube 3 is a longitudinal elliptical shape, the inner surface of the humidifier housing 2 is arc-shaped, and the distance between the inner tube 3 and the inner surface of the humidifier housing 2 is 1 / 3 of the diameter of the wet air inlet 1; the left and right end surfaces of the inner tube 3 are connected and sealed with the two ends of the humidifier housing 2 through the end surface resin 4; a hollow tubular membrane 5 is arranged in the inner tube 3; micropores 6 are distributed on the surfaces of the two ends of the inner tube 3, and each micropore 6 is a Independent channels, the airflow will evenly enter the inner tube from the micropores and contact the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane 5; the top of the humidifier housing 2 is provided with a moisture inlet 1 and a moisture outlet 7 for moisture outlet; the middle of the humidifier housing 2 is provided with a sealed partition 10 to separate the humidifier housing 2 into two parts, the moisture inlet 1 and the moisture outlet 7 are on the right and left sides of the partition 10; moisture enters the humidifier housing 2 from the moisture inlet 1, enters the inner tube from the micropores 6 of the inner tube 3 and contacts the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane 5, thereby achieving the purpose of humidifying the dry air inside the hollow tubular membrane 5. The diameter of the micropores 6 is between 2-6mm, and the porosity of the micropores 6 is 30%.

[0020] The left and right ends of the hollow tubular membrane 5 extend outside the inner tube 3, and the left and right ends of the hollow tubular membrane 5 are also located outside the end face resin 4. The left and right sides of the humidifier housing 2 are respectively provided with a dry air inlet 8 and a dry air outlet 9. Dry air enters the hollow tubular membrane 5 through the dry air inlet 8, and moisture enters the humidifier housing 2 from the moisture inlet 1, enters the inner tube from the micropores 6 of the inner tube 3 and contacts the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane 5. At this time, the moisture humidifies the dry air on the other side of the membrane, and the moisture after humidification is discharged from the moisture outlet 7. The humidified dry air comes out from the dry air outlet 9 and enters the hydrogen fuel cell stack.

[0021] By setting a dry air inlet 8 for dry air to enter the hollow tubular membrane 5, moisture enters the humidifier housing 2 from the moisture outlet 9, enters the inner tube from the micropores 6 of the inner tube 3 and contacts the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane 5. At this time, the moisture humidifies the dry air on the other side of the membrane. The moisture after humidification is discharged from the moisture outlet 7. The humidified dry air comes out from the dry air outlet 9 and enters the hydrogen fuel cell stack, thereby achieving the purpose of humidifying the dry air inside the hollow tubular membrane 5. Through the annular internal airflow channel and the arc-shaped inner tube, the moisture can first reach the surface of the inner tube relatively evenly, and then enter the inner tube through the micropores, which greatly improves the uniformity of the moisture, can improve the performance by more than 30% compared with the traditional structure, and greatly reduces the manufacturing cost.

Claims

1. An internal structure of a humidifier for a hydrogen fuel cell stack, comprising a humidifier housing (2), characterized in that: The top of the humidifier housing (2) is provided with a wet air inlet (1), and two rows of inner tubes (3) are arranged in the humidifier housing (2). The cross section of the inner tube (3) is in a longitudinal elliptical shape, and the inner surface of the humidifier housing (2) is in an arc shape. The distance between the inner tube (3) and the inner surface of the humidifier housing (2) is 1 / 3 of the diameter of the wet air inlet (1); the left and right end surfaces of the inner tube (3) are connected and sealed to the two ends of the humidifier housing (2) through end surface resin (4); a hollow tubular membrane (5) is arranged in the inner tube (3); micropores (6) are distributed on the surfaces of the two ends of the inner tube (3), and each micropore (6) is an independent channel. The airflow will be uniformly discharged from the micropores. The moisture enters the inner tube and contacts the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane (5); the top of the humidifier housing (2) is provided with a moisture inlet (1) and a moisture outlet (7) for the moisture to be discharged; a sealed partition (10) is provided in the middle of the humidifier housing (2) to separate the humidifier housing (2) into two left and right parts, and the moisture inlet (1) and the moisture outlet (7) are on both sides of the partition (10); the moisture enters the humidifier housing (2) from the moisture inlet (1), enters the inner tube from the micropores (6) of the inner tube (3), and contacts the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane (5), thereby achieving the purpose of humidifying the dry air inside the hollow tubular membrane (5).

2. The internal structure of the humidifier for the hydrogen fuel cell stack according to claim 1, characterized in that: The diameter of the micropores (6) is between 2 and 6 mm, and the porosity of the micropores (6) is 30%.

3. The internal structure of the humidifier for the hydrogen fuel cell stack according to claim 1, characterized in that: The left and right ends of the hollow tubular membrane (5) extend outside the inner tube (3). The left and right ends of the hollow tubular membrane (5) are also located outside the end face resin (4). The left and right sides of the humidifier housing (2) are respectively provided with a dry air inlet (8) and a dry air outlet (9). Dry air enters the hollow tubular membrane (5) through the dry air inlet (8). Moisture enters the humidifier housing (2) from the moisture inlet (1), enters the inner tube from the micropores (6) of the inner tube (3), and contacts the outer surface of the hollow tubular membrane (5). At this time, the moisture humidifies the dry air on the other side of the membrane. After humidification, the moisture is discharged from the moisture outlet (7). The humidified dry air comes out from the dry air outlet (9) and enters the hydrogen fuel cell stack.

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