SOLID OXIDE FUEL CELL

• Main Authors: MATSUO TAKUYA, OE TOSHIHARU, NAKANO KIYOTAKA, SHIGESUMI TSUKASA, TSUCHIYA KATSUHISA, OTSUKA TOSHIHARU
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 17.05.2012
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; ELECTRICITY; PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSIONOF CHEMICAL INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a solid oxide fuel cell achieving high comprehensive energy efficiency during stable operation maintaining thermal independence.SOLUTION: A solid oxide fuel cell (1) comprises a fuel cell module (2), fuel supply means (38), a combustion unit (18) for applying heat by burning a residual fuel, a heat storage material (7), power demand detecting means (126), temperature detecting means (142), and controlling means (110) for controlling the fuel supply means so that the fuel utilization efficiency is high when generated power is high, and low when the generated power is low, and for varying output power after varying the amount of fuel supply. The controlling means comprises heat storage estimating means (110b) for estimating the amount of heat storage based on detected temperatures, and reduces the amount of fuel supply so that the fuel utilization efficiency is high with respect to the same amount of generated power when estimating that the heat storage material stores available heat.