Hydrogen excess heat generator

Abstract

To accelerate excess heat by a new means.SOLUTION: The thermal energy generation device 100 includes a reactor body 12, graphene 11 in the reactor body 12, a holding material 7, and a heater 8. The power supply 6 is connected to the reactor body 12 via the electrode 5. The heater 8 thus heated heats the holding material 7 and the graphene 11, and the holding material 7 and the graphene 11 react with several 100Pa of hydrogen gas introduced in advance to generate excess heat.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1a

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a thermal energy generating device using graphene and hydrogen. [Background technology]

[0002] Several methods have been proposed to generate thermal energy using hydrogen at low temperatures and low pressures. Patent Documents 1, 2, and 3 are examples of such methods. Patent Document 1 proposes that a cold nuclear fusion reaction is initiated by applying electric power between electrodes in an electrolyte to generate glow discharge light. Patent Document 2 demonstrates that excess heat relative to input energy is generated by using a nano-sized multilayer metal composite as a reactant in a condensed matter nuclear reactor. Patent Document 3 describes a method of generating energy using graphene-based materials. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2016-006431 [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2019-086291 [Patent Document 3] WO2012088472A1 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Patent Document 1 contains little information about the occurrence of nuclear fusion reactions and does not provide a quantitative evaluation of the energy generated by nuclear fusion. Therefore, the reproducibility of nuclear fusion reactions using the device in Patent Document 1 is unclear. Patent Document 2 reports that excess heat relative to the input energy has been confirmed. However, the quantitative results are not sufficient for industrial application. Patent Document 3 describes a reaction that is supposed to be like a nuclear fusion reaction, but rather produces intermittent, not continuous energy, and the gas species used is limited to deuterium. As such, there is currently no device that can generate thermal energy using protons at a practical level. Therefore, there is a need for a new means of generating excess heat to promote reactions that can replace the condensation-concentration reactor using a multilayer metal composite in Patent Document 2. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] The thermal energy generating device of the present invention aims to efficiently generate excess heat and effectively utilize it as thermal energy even when using protons by promoting electron-mediated actions such as hydrogen electron capture through heating of single particles of carbon, which are the core of graphene.

[0006] For this reason, the thermal energy generating device of the present invention comprises a reactor that houses a metal base with a built-in heater for holding and heating graphene, and a vacuum pump system that introduces or exhausts hydrogen into the reactor. The graphene is held in close contact between the metal base and the metal plates stacked above and below it, thereby efficiently transferring heat from the heater to the graphene and quickly propagating excess heat from the reaction between hydrogen and graphene to the metal plates.

[0007] Here, graphene includes graphene-based materials such as single-layer graphene, multi-layer graphene, and carbon nanotubes, as well as materials obtained by adding other elements to the above-mentioned graphene-based materials.

[0008] Here, hydrogen includes protium, deuterium, tritium and mixtures thereof.

[0009] The heating etc. described in (0005) includes, in addition to heating, attaching electrodes to both ends of the graphene film and passing a current through them, placing a magnetic body such as a permanent magnet or an electromagnet to act as a magnetic field on the hydrogen and electrons involved in the excess heat generation, and confining the hydrogen gas pressure in the reactor to more than several hundred Pa or in an environment above atmospheric pressure. [Effects of the Invention]

[0010] The present invention is a mechanism for generating excess heat by heating graphene in a low-pressure hydrogen atmosphere, which is central to heat generation applications such as heaters that do not emit greenhouse gases as a heating element and require only small amounts of hydrogen replenishment.

[0011] Compared to ordinary kerosene, gas, and other combustion-based heaters, its distinctive features are that it does not use fossil fuels and therefore does not produce greenhouse gases, that it is more fuel-efficient than electric heaters because it generates more excess heat than the input heater power, and that it is self-sustaining and can be used in the event of a disaster if it uses a battery for input. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1a] 1 is a schematic diagram of a thermal energy generating device according to one embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 1b] FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a reactor body according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] 1 is a schematic diagram of an experimental device according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 3a] 3 is a graph showing the results of an experiment using graphene using the experimental apparatus of FIG. 2. [Figure 3b] 3a, and a graph showing the results of an experiment using twice the graphene area. [Figure 4] 3 is a graph showing the results of an experiment using the experimental apparatus of FIG. 2 without graphene. [Figure 5] This is a graph plotting the temperature of the thermocouple 9 when the power supply 6 in FIG. 4 is varied, and is used as a calibration curve. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0013] 1a, a thermal energy generating device 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described. The device comprises a reactor body 12 made up of graphene 11, a support material 7, and a heater 8, a reactor 1 that houses the reactor body, an inlet 4 for introducing hydrogen into the reactor, a vacuum pump 2 and a vacuum gauge 3 for suctioning the interior of the reactor to a predetermined pressure, an electrode 5 and a power supply 6 for energizing the heater, and thermocouples 9 and 10 for measuring temperature.

[0014] As shown in FIG. 1b, the reactor body 12 is composed of a metal base 13 incorporating a heater 8, and metal plates 14 and supports 15 for stacking and sandwiching the graphene 11 on the metal base 13. By tightly holding the graphene 11 between the metal base 13 and the metal plates 14 stacked above and below it, the heat of the heater 8 is efficiently transferred to the graphene 11, and excess heat from the reaction between hydrogen and graphene is quickly propagated to the metal plates 14.

[0015] The reactor 1 is a heat-resistant and pressure-resistant vessel that can be sealed so that the internal space can be kept vacuum, and has flanges 1a and 1b through which it is connected to an external structure. The flange 1a is connected to a vacuum pump 2 and a vacuum gauge 3. The flange 1a, the vacuum pump 2, and the vacuum gauge 3 are configured so that the airtightness of the reactor 1 can be ensured by appropriate valves and packing. These valves and packing are made of highly heat-resistant parts.

[0016] The vacuum pump 2 sucks gas from the reactor 1. The vacuum gauge 3 can measure the degree of vacuum in the reactor 1. Based on the measurement results by the vacuum gauge 3, the vacuum pump 2 is driven so as to maintain the degree of vacuum in the reactor 1 within a certain range. The driving of the vacuum pump 2 may be controlled manually or automatically using a mass flow meter or the like.

[0017] One end of the gas inlet 4 is connected to the reactor 1 through the flange 1b, and the other end is connected to a gas supply device through the flange 1b. Hydrogen or isotope hydrogen gas is supplied to the reactor 1 through the gas inlet 4.

[0018] The electrode 5 is made of a straight metal part and is inserted into the reactor 1 through the flange part 1b. One end of the electrode 5 is electrically connected to a power source 6, and the other end is connected to a heater 8 that heats the reactor body 12 in the reactor 1 to induce a reaction.

[0019] The power supply 6 has a sliding mechanism at the output section, and the amount of heat generated by the reactor 1 may be manually controlled, or may be automatically controlled by an appropriate control device such as a PID control.

[0020] The holder 7 holds the graphene 11, stores the heat of the heater 8, maintains the temperature conditions for generating excess heat on the graphene 11, and stores the heat generated by the reaction.

[0021] The heater 8 is composed of an electric heating wire for heating the reactor body 12 and a ceramic or metal coating that incorporates the electric heating wire, and heats the graphene 11 and the metal plate 14 from inside the metal base 13.

[0022] Thermocouple 9 is fixed to holding material 7 and measures the temperature generated by the reaction. Thermocouple 10 is fixed to the outer surface of reactor 1 and measures the temperature rise caused by the heat measured by thermocouple 9 propagating through reactor 1, and is connected to a logger via electrode 5.

[0023] (Method of operating a thermal energy generating device) The method of operating the thermal energy generating device of the present invention will be described below based on the thermal energy generation measurement diagram 200.

[0024] As shown in Figure 2, the experimental device 200 is composed of a thermal energy generating device 100, a logger 201, and a personal computer 202. Thermocouples 9 and 10 and the vacuum level of vacuum gauge 3 are connected to the logger to record data, and a time series graph is displayed on the personal computer 202.

[0025] The reactor body 12 is vacuum pumped 10 -3 The pressure is reduced to the Pa range, and the vessel is heated to several hundred degrees Celsius by heater 8 for one hour and cooled. After that, the vessel is filled with hydrogen at several hundred Pa and maintained at this pressure for 30 minutes.

[0026] After that, (0025) is repeated two or three times, and then hydrogen is filled to several tens of Pa to several hundreds of Pa.

[0027] The holding material 7 and graphene 11 are heated by a heater 8 supplied with a predetermined amount of power from a power source 6 , and the temperatures are measured by thermocouples 9 and 10 fixed to the surfaces of the holding material 7 and the reactor 1 .

[0028] After the temperature rise reaches equilibrium, the power supply 6 is turned off to stop the reaction.

[0029] (How to check for excessive heat generation) To confirm that excess heat is being generated, the graphene 11 is removed from the reactor body 12 in Figure 2, and the power supply is varied in steps from 80 W to 200 W for the operations (0025) to (0028). The resulting temperature is plotted on a graph and used as a calibration curve (see Figure 5).

[0030] Next, with the graphene in place, perform the (0025) to (0028) operations. If the holding material temperature exceeds the holding material temperature on the calibration curve with the same heater input power, excess heat is generated. The excess heat generated is read from the calibration curve graph, and the COP (energy gain), which is the heat generation efficiency, is calculated. Because the amount of hydrogen gas used is so small, there is almost no impact on the COP value.

[0031] (Experimental example) An experiment using the experimental device 200 according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

[0032] FIG. 3 is a time axis graph of the thermocouple 9 when the thermal energy generating device 100 is filled with 60 cm2 of single-layer graphene and 130 Pa of hydrogen gas, and the power supply 6 is set to 130 W.

[0033] Figure 4 is a time axis graph of the thermocouple 9 when two 60 cm2 single-layer graphene sheets are stacked on the thermal energy generating device 100 without graphene, hydrogen gas is filled at 130 Pa, and the power supply 6 is set to 130 W.

[0034] From the calibration curve in Figure 5, when the power supply 6 is set to 130 W, the temperature is 409°C in Figure 4, 460°C in Figure 3a, and 495°C in Figure 3b. Since the intersection point of the calibration curve at 495°C is 255 W, the COP value is 255 / 130. This realizes an excess heat reaction that is approximately 25% higher than the excess heat evaluation of 1 / 0.63 described in Patent Document 2 (0140).

[0035] The safety of the reaction was confirmed using a fixed dosimeter and a glass badge worn on the worker's chest, and no abnormalities were observed in stability and reproducibility after more than 20 hours of continuous operation and more than 100 repeated operations.

[0036] (Variation) The above is a description of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications are possible within the scope of the means for solving the problems. [Explanation of symbols]

[0037] 100. Thermal energy generator 1. Reactor 2. Vacuum pump 3. Vacuum gauge 4.Gas inlet 5. Electrode 6.Power supply 7.Retaining material 8. Heater 9. Thermocouple 10. Thermocouple 11. Graphene 12.Reactor body 13.Metal stand 14.Metal plate 15. Prop 200. Thermal energy generation measurement diagram 201. Logger 202. Computer

Claims

1. A thermal energy generating device that generates excess heat by reacting hydrogen with graphene, comprising a reactor that houses a metal stand with a built-in heater for holding and heating graphene, and a vacuum pump system that introduces hydrogen into or exhausts hydrogen from the reactor.

2. The thermal energy generating device according to claim 1 , wherein the graphene is held with adhesion between the metal base and the metal plates stacked above and below the metal base.

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