Patent ID: 11870050
Assignee: JTEC ENERGY, INC.
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  F  Y | IPC F  H

Claim 0:
1. An electrochemical direct heat to electricity converter comprising:
a working fluid;
a first membrane electrode assembly including a high pressure porous electrode, a low pressure porous electrode and at least one membrane, wherein the at least one membrane is sandwiched between the high and low pressure porous electrodes and is a conductor of ions of the working fluid;
a second membrane electrode assembly including a high pressure porous electrode, a low pressure porous electrode and at least one membrane, wherein the at least one membrane is sandwiched between the high and low pressure porous electrodes and is a conductor of ions of the working fluid;
a first conduit containing the working fluid at a first pressure and a second conduit containing the working fluid at a second pressure which is lower than the first pressure, the first conduit being a high pressure conduit coupled to the high pressure porous electrodes of the first and second membrane electrode assemblies and the second conduit being a low pressure conduit coupled to the low pressure porous electrodes of the first and second membrane electrode assemblies;
a high pressure working fluid storage reservoir coupled to the high pressure conduit between the first and second membrane electrode assemblies;
a low pressure working fluid storage reservoir coupled to the low pressure conduit between the first and second membrane electrode assemblies; and
a controller;
wherein the electrochemical converter produces electrical energy when the working fluid flows from the high pressure working fluid storage reservoir through the high pressure conduit to the first membrane electrode assembly and expands through the first membrane electrode assembly from high pressure to low pressure when power is extracted from the first membrane electrode assembly;
and wherein the electrochemical converter stores electrical energy in the high pressure working fluid storage reservoir when power produced by the second membrane electrode assembly and provided by the controller to the first membrane electrode assembly exceeds a threshold and the compressed working fluid is compressed through the first membrane electrode assembly from low pressure to high pressure.