Fuel processor having desulfurizer with sulfer sensor, fuel cell system including the fuel processor, and method of operating the fuel cell system
원문보기
IPC분류정보
국가/구분
United States(US) Patent
등록
국제특허분류(IPC7판)
B01J-007/00
C01B-003/36
G01N-005/02
G01R-027/08
출원번호
US-0675339
(2007-02-15)
등록번호
US-8226736
(2012-07-24)
우선권정보
KR-10-2006-0076371 (2006-08-11)
발명자
/ 주소
Lee, Hyun-chul
Kim, Soon-ho
Lee, Doo-hwan
Seung, Do-young
Lee, Kang-hee
출원인 / 주소
Samsung SDI Co., Ltd.
대리인 / 주소
Lee & Morse, P.C.
인용정보
피인용 횟수 :
0인용 특허 :
2
초록▼
A fuel processor and a fuel cell system which have a desulfurizer with multiple sensors, and a method of measuring an adsorbent state in of an adsorbent the desulfurizer. The desulfurizer determines the saturation state of the adsorbent using a signal difference between at least two sensors installe
A fuel processor and a fuel cell system which have a desulfurizer with multiple sensors, and a method of measuring an adsorbent state in of an adsorbent the desulfurizer. The desulfurizer determines the saturation state of the adsorbent using a signal difference between at least two sensors installed adjacent to an inlet and an outlet of the desulfurizer. The desulfurizer provides an accurate determination of the saturation of the adsorbent, and can be used to determine when the adsorbent should be changed. Two desulfurizers can be alternatively used to allow for a consistent fuel flow.
대표청구항▼
1. A fuel processor to purify a fuel using an adsorbent, the fuel processor comprising: a desulfurizer comprising a housing having an inlet and an outlet and having the adsorbent disposed in the housing;a first sulfur sensor configured to detect at least one of an electrical, a physical, and a chemi
1. A fuel processor to purify a fuel using an adsorbent, the fuel processor comprising: a desulfurizer comprising a housing having an inlet and an outlet and having the adsorbent disposed in the housing;a first sulfur sensor configured to detect at least one of an electrical, a physical, and a chemical characteristic variation of the adsorbent in a first region of the adsorbent and to determine a concentration of sulfur adsorbed on the adsorbent in the first region of the adsorbent, wherein the first region is adjacent to the inlet; anda second sulfur sensor configured to detect at least one of an electrical, a physical, and a chemical characteristic variation of the adsorbent in a second region of the adsorbent and to determine a concentration of sulfur adsorbed on the adsorbent in the second region of the adsorbent, wherein the second region is adjacent to the outlet,wherein the first sulfur sensor is installed in the first region of the adsorbent and the second sulfur sensor is installed in the second region of the adsorbent. 2. The fuel processor of claim 1, further comprising a second desulfurizer to be used alternately with the desulfurizer. 3. The fuel processor of claim 1, wherein the first and second sulfur sensors determine the saturation state of the respective first and second regions of the adsorbent. 4. The fuel processor of claim 1, further comprising: a reformer to extract hydrogen gas from a fuel source;a burner to heat the reformer to an appropriate temperature for a hydrogen extracting reaction; anda CO removal unit to remove CO produced during the hydrogen extraction reaction. 5. A method of operating a fuel processor in which sulfur contained in a fuel source is removed using a first desulfurizer comprising an adsorbent, the method comprising: using a first sulfur sensor and a second sulfur sensor, disposed adjacent to an inlet and an outlet of the first desulfurizer, the first sulfur sensor and the second sulfur sensor being configured to detect at least one of an electrical, a physical, and a chemical characteristic variation of the adsorbent in a first region and a second region of the adsorbent, to produce sulfur concentration signals with respect to a first region of the adsorbent adjacent to the inlet and a second region of the adsorbent adjacent to the outlet, respectively, the first sulfur sensor being installed in the first region of the adsorbent and the second sulfur sensor being installed in the second region of the adsorbent;measuring signal variations between the sulfur concentration signals according to time; anddetermining the sulfur saturation state of adsorbent in the first desulfurizer, using the signal variations. 6. The method of claim 5, further comprising producing an alarm when the adsorbent is determined to be saturated with the sulfur. 7. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining saturation of the adsorbent when ⅆΔYⅆt<0, wherein dt is the variation of time and d(|ΔY|) is the variation of signal difference between the first sulfur sensor and the second sulfur sensor. 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising controlling the measuring frequency of ΔY. 9. The method of claim 5, further comprising ceasing to use the first desulfurizer when an adsorbent of the first desulfurizer is determined to be saturated with sulfur and then operating the fuel processor using a second desulfurizer. 10. The method of claim 5, wherein the first sulfur sensor and the second sulfur sensor determine the saturation state of the respective first and second regions of the adsorbent. 11. A fuel cell system to purify a fuel using an adsorbent, the fuel cell system comprising: a fuel processor that comprises,a desulfurizer having an inlet and an outlet and an adsorbent between the inlet and the outlet,a first sulfur sensor configured to detect at least one of an electrical, a physical, and a chemical characteristic variation of the adsorbent in a first region of the adsorbent and to determine a concentration of sulfur adsorbed on the adsorbent in the first region of the adsorbent, wherein the first region is adjacent to the inlet,a second sulfur sensor configured to detect at least one of an electrical, a physical, and a chemical characteristic variation of the adsorbent in a second region of the adsorbent and to determine a concentration of sulfur adsorbed on the adsorbent in the second region of the adsorbent, wherein the second region is adjacent to the outlet, wherein the first and second sulfur sensors are to determine the sulfur saturation state of the adsorbent; anda stack to generate electricity using a fuel supplied from the fuel processor,wherein the first sulfur sensor is installed in the first region of the adsorbent and the second sulfur sensor is installed in the second region of the adsorbent. 12. A method of operating a fuel cell system in which sulfur contained in a fuel source is removed using a desulfurizer comprising an adsorbent and hydrogen gas is extracted from the fuel source in order to be supplied to a stack, the method comprising: providing sulfur sensors respectively at an inlet and outlet of the desulfurizer, each sulfur sensor being configured to detect at least one of an electrical, a physical, and a chemical characteristic variation of the adsorbent in a region adjacent to the inlet and in a region adjacent to the outlet, to provide signals corresponding to a sulfur concentration of the adsorbent in the region adjacent to the inlet and a sulfur concentration of the adsorbent in the region adjacent to the outlet, respectively, a first sulfur sensor being installed in the region of the adsorbent adjacent to the inlet and a second sulfur sensor being installed in the region of the adsorbent adjacent to the outlet;measuring signal variations according to time between the signals measured in each of the sulfur sensors; anddetermining the saturation state of an adsorbent in the desulfurizer, using the signal variations. 13. The fuel processor of claim 1, further comprising a controller to determine a saturation state of the adsorbent based on a difference between signals provided by the first and second sulfur sensors corresponding to the sulfur concentration in the first and second regions of the adsorbent, respectively. 14. The fuel processor of claim 1, wherein the adsorbent comprises one of a zeolite and a zinc oxide. 15. The method of claim 9, wherein the ceasing to use the first desulfurizer and operating the fuel processor using a second desulfurizer further comprises: closing one or more valves connecting the first desulfurizer to the fuel source; andopening one or more valves connecting the second desulfurizer to the fuel source. 16. The method of claim 9, wherein, the using of the second desulfurizer further comprises maintaining a substantially consistent fuel flow from the fuel source. 17. The fuel cell system of claim 11, further comprising a controller to determine a replacement time for an adsorbent by determining a saturation state of the adsorbent based on a signal difference between the signals measured by the first and second sulfur sensors corresponding to the sulfur concentration in the first and second regions of the adsorbent, respectively. 18. The fuel cell system of claim 17, further comprising a controller to generate an alarm signal based on the saturation states of the adsorbent. 19. A fuel processor comprising: a fuel source;a first desulfurizer;a second desulfurizer; anda fuel pathway to alternately connect the first and second desulfurizers to the fuel source, wherein the first and second desulfurizers each comprise an inlet and an outlet and an adsorbent between the inlet and the outlet, a first sulfur sensor configured to detect at least one of an electrical, a physical, and a chemical characteristic variation of the adsorbent in a first region of the adsorbent and to determine a sulfur concentration in the first region of the adsorbent, wherein the first region is adjacent to the inlet, and a second sulfur sensor configured to detect at least one of an electrical, a physical, and a chemical characteristic variation of the adsorbent in a second region of the adsorbent and to determine a sulfur concentration in the second region of the adsorbent, wherein the second region is adjacent to the outlet, wherein the first and second sulfur sensors are to determine the sulfur saturation state of an the adsorbent and wherein the first sulfur sensor is installed in the first region of the adsorbent and the second sulfur sensor is installed in the second region of the adsorbent. 20. The fuel processor of claim 1, wherein the first and second sulfur sensors detect at least one of electrical resistance, electrical conductivity, ion conductivity, optical extinction and/or mass of the adsorbent in the respective first and second regions of the adsorbent to determine the concentration of sulfur adsorbed on the respective first and second regions of the adsorbent.
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