JP2007111670A - Small liquid supply device and hydrogen generator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a compact liquid feeder, from which a liquid can be supplied by a simple and compact driving mechanism and in which an operation of starting the supply of the liquid and an adjustment of a feeding rate of the liquid can be facilitated; and to provide an apparatus for producing hydrogen, which is provided with the compact liquid feeder. <P>SOLUTION: The compact liquid feeder is provided with: a liquid housing part 2 for housing the liquid 1 to be supplied; a movable partition wall part 3 to be arranged to divide the liquid housing part 2; a discharge part 5 for discharging the liquid 1 from the liquid housing part 2; a discharge controlling part 6 to be arranged in the discharge part 5; a pressing means 7 for pressing the movable partition wall part 3 to pressurize the liquid 1; and a pressing force adjusting mechanism S for adjusting the pressing force of the pressing means 7. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a small liquid supply apparatus using a spring or the like and a hydrogen generation apparatus including the same, and is particularly useful as a technique for generating hydrogen gas to be supplied to a fuel cell.

  A fuel cell is an energy source that is attracting attention because it has higher power generation efficiency than other power generation systems and does not generate substances that pollute the atmosphere. In order to generate power in the fuel cell, air (oxygen) is supplied to the cathode and hydrogen is supplied to the anode. Hydrogen becomes hydrogen ions and electrons by the catalytic reaction at the anode, and the hydrogen ions move through the electrolyte and react with oxygen by the catalytic reaction at the cathode to become water. On the other hand, the electrons travel through the external circuit and move to the cathode. Electric energy is generated by the movement of the electrons.

  As described above, it is necessary to supply hydrogen as a fuel to the fuel cell. Accordingly, various apparatuses for generating hydrogen are known and disclosed in, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2 below. These all generate hydrogen by decomposing hydrocarbons. The hydrogen generators in Patent Documents 1 and 2 are constituted by a cylindrical reactor as well as a cylindrical heat supply device.

  In addition, a hydrogen gas generation unit disclosed in Patent Document 3 below includes a tank for containing water, a reaction vessel containing a metal that generates hydrogen by a chemical reaction with water, and a proximity to the reaction vessel. Heating means, an introduction pipe for introducing water contained in the tank into the reaction container, a return pipe for introducing hydrogen generated in the reaction container and unreacted water into the tank, hydrogen in the tank and And a discharge pipe for discharging water. A pump is used to introduce the tank water into the reaction vessel, thereby controlling the amount of water supplied to the reaction vessel. The reaction container is accommodated in the apparatus main body, and is closely held by the heating means. Thereby, the water introduced into the reaction vessel is heated to become water vapor, and the reaction for generating hydrogen gas in the reaction vessel can be promoted.

  In the hydrogen generator as described above, it may be desirable to control the amount of water fed into the reaction vessel to be constant. For example, when a large amount of water is fed, there is a problem that more hydrogen gas than necessary is generated. In order to control (limit) the feed amount of water, it is preferable to use a pump. However, a space for housing the pump and a mechanism for driving the pump are required, which increases costs and enlarges the apparatus. In particular, when a hydrogen generating cell is incorporated in a portable device such as a notebook personal computer or a PDA, a configuration capable of realizing as small a size as possible is required. That is, there is a demand for a small liquid supply device that can supply water without using a pump, and a hydrogen generator equipped with the liquid supply device.

JP 2004-63127 A JP 2004-59340 A JP 2004-149394 A

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a small liquid supply device that can supply liquid by a simple and small drive mechanism, and that can also easily perform supply start operation and adjustment of the supply speed, and a hydrogen generator equipped with the same. It is to provide.

The above object can be achieved by the present invention as described below.
That is, the small liquid supply device of the present invention includes a liquid storage portion that stores a liquid to be supplied, a movable partition wall that is arranged to partition the liquid storage portion, and a discharge that discharges the liquid from the liquid storage portion. And a discharge suppression unit provided in the discharge unit, a biasing unit that biases the movable partition wall to pressurize the liquid, and a biasing force adjustment mechanism that adjusts a biasing force of the biasing unit. It is characterized by that.

  According to the small liquid supply device of the present invention, the movable partition wall is urged by the urging means by the urging force adjusting mechanism, and the liquid in the liquid storage unit is pressurized, so that it corresponds to the pressure generated from the discharge suppression unit. Liquid is supplied. At that time, since the presence / absence and strength of the urging force can be adjusted by the urging force adjusting mechanism, the liquid supply start operation and the supply speed can be easily adjusted. As a result, it is possible to provide a small liquid supply apparatus that can supply liquid with a simple and small drive mechanism and that can easily perform a supply start operation and a supply speed adjustment.

  In the above, the movable partition wall is constituted by a piston, the urging means is constituted by a spring for urging the piston at one end, and the urging force adjusting mechanism is moved by screwing the other end of the spring. It is preferable that it is composed of parts. According to this configuration, the urging force of the piston by the spring can be easily adjusted according to the degree of screwing of the threaded portion, a simpler and smaller drive mechanism can be realized, and the start operation of the supply and the supply speed can be reduced. Adjustments can be made more easily.

  At that time, it is preferable to further include an extension preventing means for preventing the length of the spring from becoming a certain length or more in a state where the spring constituting the biasing means is compressed. If the spring is allowed to extend freely, there is almost no urging force when the spring is fully extended from the compressed state, so the liquid supply speed will be extremely slow at the end. Is compressed, so that the liquid can be supplied to the end at a sufficient speed. It is also easy to adjust the total liquid supply.

  On the other hand, a hydrogen generator according to the present invention includes any one of the above-described small liquid supply devices, and a reaction vessel connected to the small liquid supply device via the discharge suppression unit and containing a hydrogen generating agent. It is characterized by that. According to the hydrogen generator of the present invention, since the small liquid supply device of the present invention having the above-described effects is provided, the liquid for the hydrogen generation reaction can be supplied by a simple and small drive mechanism, and the supply start operation In addition, since it is possible to easily adjust the feed rate and the feed rate, the hydrogen generating apparatus can easily perform the reaction start operation and the reaction rate.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an example of the hydrogen generator of the present invention, and is an example in which the small liquid supply device of the present invention is integrated with a reaction vessel containing a hydrogen generating agent. First, the small liquid supply apparatus of the present invention will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the small-sized liquid supply device of the present invention includes a liquid storage portion 2 that stores a liquid 1 to be supplied, a movable partition portion that is disposed so as to partition the liquid storage portion 2, and a liquid storage portion. 2 is provided with a discharge part 5 for discharging the liquid 1 from the discharge part 2 and a discharge suppression part 6 provided in the discharge part 5. In the present embodiment, an example in which the movable partition wall is constituted by the piston 3 is shown.

  The liquid 1 may be any liquid, but when used in a hydrogen generator, a reaction liquid that reacts with the hydrogen generator 12 to generate hydrogen is used. Examples of the reaction solution include water, an acid or alkali aqueous solution, and the like.

  The liquid storage unit 2 stores the liquid 1 in a state of being partitioned by a movable partition wall such as the piston 3. When the piston 3 is used as the movable partition wall portion, the liquid storage portion 2 has an inner wall 2a on which the piston 3 can slide. In the example shown in the figure, a partition wall 2 b with the reaction vessel 11 is provided at a position facing the piston 3.

  A discharge unit 5 that discharges the liquid 1 is provided at substantially the center of the partition wall 2 b of the liquid storage unit 2. The discharge unit 5 is provided with a discharge suppression unit 6 that suppresses the discharge speed of the liquid 1. In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which the discharge suppression portion 6 is formed by pores having a smaller flow path length than the thickness of the partition wall 2b while reducing the inner diameter.

  The piston 3 has a sealing material 3a on a sliding contact surface with the inner wall 2a, and is configured to be slidable with respect to the inner wall 2a while maintaining sealing performance. Furthermore, the piston 3 has a hook locking portion 3b.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the small-sized liquid supply apparatus of the present invention includes an urging unit that urges the movable partition wall to pressurize the liquid 1, and an urging force adjusting mechanism that adjusts the urging force of the urging unit. It is characterized by providing. In this embodiment, the urging means is constituted by a spring 7 that urges the piston 3 at one end 7a, and the urging force adjusting mechanism is a screw portion S that moves the other end 7b of the spring 7 by screwing. An example is shown.

  For example, the screw portion S includes a female screw portion 2 c formed on the inner surface of the peripheral wall of the liquid storage portion 2 and a male screw portion 8 a of the cap 8. By rotating the cap 8, the cap 8 moves upward in the drawing.

  The spring 7 constituting the urging means may be a leaf spring or the like, but a coil spring is preferable for uniformly urging (pressing) the movable partition wall such as the piston 3. One end 7 a of the spring 7 is held by the inner peripheral surface of the sealing material holding portion 3 c of the piston 3, and the other end 7 b of the spring 7 is held by the spring holding portion 8 b of the cap 8. The cap 8 further has a hook locking portion 8c.

  In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which a free hook 21 for preventing the length of the spring 7 from becoming a certain length or more in the compressed state of the spring 7 constituting the biasing means is further provided as an extension preventing means. The universal hook 21 includes a first hook member 21a and a second hook member 21c, and a joint member 21b that couples both of them freely and flexibly. The first hook member 21a and the second hook member 21c are hooked on the hook locking portion 8c and the hook locking portion 3b, respectively. The joint member 21b prevents the rotation of the cap 8 from being transmitted to the second hook member 21c.

  Next, the operation of the small liquid supply apparatus of the present invention will be described. Before the supply of the liquid is started, the free hook 21 is fully extended by the elastic restoring force of the spring 7 to be linear, and the force is balanced with the spring 7 compressed, and the length of the spring 7 is constant. The liquid storage unit 2 is filled with the liquid 1 up to the discharge suppression unit 6 and the piston 3 is stationary.

  When the cap 8 is rotated and moved upward, the spring 7 is further compressed and the free hook 21 bends, so that the piston 3 is biased by the elastic restoring force of the spring 7 and pressurizes the liquid 1. By this pressure, the liquid 1 is supplied to the reaction vessel 11 against the flow resistance of the discharge suppression unit 6. The supply of the liquid 1 continues until the free hook 21 is fully extended, and when it is fully extended, pressurization by the spring 7 cannot be performed, and the supply of the liquid 1 is stopped.

  By rotating the cap 8 again, the supply and stop of the liquid 1 as described above can be repeated.

  Next, the hydrogen generator of the present invention will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the hydrogen generator of the present invention is connected to the small liquid supply device of the present invention and a reaction for containing the hydrogen generating agent 12 connected to the small liquid supply device via the discharge suppression unit 6. The container 11 is provided. In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which the peripheral wall of the liquid storage unit 2 is extended to integrally form the reaction vessel 11.

  Examples of the hydrogen generating agent 12 include metal particles that react with a reaction solution such as water to generate hydrogen, for example, one or more metal particles selected from Fe, Al, Mg, Zn, Si, and the like. Examples include oxidized metal particles. The hydrogen generator may contain a catalyst component, alkaline earth metal oxide, carbon black, and the like. The hydrogen generator may be in the form of powder, granulated, or tableted.

  The reaction liquid supplied as the liquid 1 may be any reaction liquid that generates hydrogen by reacting with a hydrogen generating agent. Examples thereof include water and an aqueous solution containing an acid.

[Other Embodiments]
Hereinafter, other embodiments of the present invention will be described.

  (1) In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the movable partition wall portion is constituted by a piston has been shown. However, in the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 2 to 3, the movable partition wall portion is configured using a diaphragm 4 or the like. May be. The diaphragm 4 is preferably a flexible rubber or elastomer. Further, in order to transmit the urging force from the spring 7 to the diaphragm 4 as uniformly as possible, a support member 4a may be attached to the diaphragm 4 as shown in FIG.

  (2) In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the urging means is constituted by a spring has been shown. However, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, a porous elastic body 25 such as a sponge, rubber, an elastomer, etc. The urging means may be constituted by the elastic body. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the porous elastic body 25 is provided in the space without a gap. However, in particular, when an ordinary elastic body is used, it is appropriate to provide the elastic body in a part of the space. It is preferable in obtaining power.

  (3) In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the biasing force adjusting mechanism is configured by the screw portion that moves the other end of the spring by screwing is shown. However, the biasing force adjusting mechanism in the present invention is a simple slide mechanism or the like. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the urging force may be adjusted by pressing the cap 8. In the illustrated example, the cap 8 is provided with an engaging concave portion 8d, and the engaging convex portion 2d is provided in a portion where the peripheral wall of the liquid storage portion 2 is extended, and the position of the cap 8 is fixed by pushing the cap 8 in. Having a mechanism.

  (4) In the above-described embodiment, the example in which the discharge suppression unit provided in the discharge unit is configured by the fine pores is shown. However, the discharge suppression unit in the present invention is a liquid as shown in FIGS. Any means may be used as long as the discharge can be suppressed.

  What is shown in FIG. 2 is a cock valve-type discharge suppressing portion 6, which rotates when the valve portion 6 b provided with the pores 6 a rotates the cock 6 c and partially closes the pores 6 a, so that the liquid 1 discharge speed can be controlled.

  In FIG. 3, the discharge suppression unit 6 is suppressed by a porous film 26 having water repellency with respect to the liquid 1 and a porous plate 27 that supports the porous film 26. The porous film 26 having water repellency has a property that the liquid 1 does not permeate unless a certain pressure or more is applied to the liquid 1. 1 can be supplied to the reaction vessel 11.

  In such a porous membrane 26, the pressure at which the liquid 1 can permeate is determined mainly by the average pore diameter. For this reason, the average pore diameter of the porous membrane 26 is preferably 0.1 to 5 μm in the present invention. The thickness of the polymer porous membrane is preferably 10 to 100 μm. Examples of the material of the porous film 26 include fluororesins such as polytetrafluoroethylene, polyolefins such as polypropylene and polyethylene, polyurethane, and silicone resins.

  (5) In the above-described embodiment, an example in which a universal hook is provided as an extension preventing means has been described. However, the extension preventing means of the present invention is a state in which the spring constituting the biasing means is compressed and the length of the spring is Any one can be used as long as it is prevented from exceeding a certain level. For example, a wire, a chain, etc. may be sufficient, and the biasing means itself may have such a function. Further, a locking mechanism 28 as shown in FIG. 4 may be suspended from the movable partition wall and the cap.

The longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows an example of the hydrogen generator of this invention The longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the other example of the small-sized liquid supply apparatus of this invention Vertical section showing another example of the hydrogen generator of the present invention The perspective view which shows the other example of the expansion | extension prevention means in the small-sized liquid supply apparatus of this invention

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Liquid 2 Liquid accommodating part 2c Female thread part 2d Engaging convex part 3 Piston (movable partition part)
3b Hook locking part 4 Diaphragm 5 Discharge part 6 Discharge suppression part 7 Spring (biasing means)
7a one end 7b other end 8 cap 8a male screw portion 8b spring holding portion 8c hook engaging portion 11 reaction vessel 12 hydrogen generating agent 21 universal hook 25 porous elastic body (biasing means)
26 porous membrane 27 perforated plate 28 locking mechanism S biasing force adjusting mechanism

Claims (4)

A liquid storage section for storing the liquid to be supplied;
A movable partition wall disposed so as to partition the liquid container;
A discharge part for discharging the liquid from the liquid storage part, a discharge suppression part provided in the discharge part,
Biasing means for biasing the movable partition wall and pressurizing the liquid;
An urging force adjusting mechanism for adjusting the urging force of the urging means;
A small liquid supply apparatus comprising:   The movable partition portion is constituted by a piston, the urging means is constituted by a spring that urges the piston at one end, and the urging force adjusting mechanism is constituted by a screw portion that moves the other end of the spring by screwing. The small-sized liquid supply apparatus of Claim 1 to be performed.   The small-sized liquid supply device according to claim 2, further comprising an extension preventing means for preventing the length of the spring constituting the biasing means from being a certain length or more in a compressed state.   A hydrogen generator comprising: the small liquid supply device according to any one of claims 1 to 3; and a reaction vessel connected to the small liquid supply device via the discharge suppression unit and containing a hydrogen generating agent.

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