Patent ID: 9406950
Filing Date: 2016-08-02
CPC Classification: C01B,H01M,Y02E,Y02P,Y02T

Claim Text:
1. A fuel cell module comprising: a fuel cell stack formed by stacking a plurality of fuel cells for generating electricity by electrochemical reactions of a fuel gas and an oxygen-containing gas; a reformer for reforming a mixed gas of water vapor and a raw fuel chiefly containing hydrocarbon to produce the fuel gas supplied to the fuel cell stack; an evaporator for evaporating water and supplying the water vapor to the reformer; a heat exchanger for raising a temperature of the oxygen-containing gas by heat exchange with a combustion gas, and supplying the oxygen-containing gas to the fuel cell stack; an exhaust gas combustor for combusting the fuel gas discharged from the fuel cell stack as a fuel exhaust gas and the oxygen-containing gas discharged from the fuel cell stack as an oxygen-containing exhaust gas to produce the combustion gas; and a start-up combustor for combusting the raw fuel and the oxygen-containing gas to produce the combustion gas, wherein the fuel cell module includes: a first area where the exhaust gas combustor and the start-up combustor are provided; an annular second area around the first area and where the reformer and the evaporator are provided; and an annular third area around the second area and where the heat exchanger is provided, wherein the heat exchanger includes an annular oxygen-containing gas supply chamber to which the oxygen-containing gas is supplied, an annular oxygen-containing gas discharge chamber to which the heated oxygen-containing gas is discharged, a plurality of heat exchange pipes each having one end connected to the oxygen-containing gas supply chamber and another end connected to the oxygen-containing gas discharge chamber, and a combustion gas channel for supplying the combustion gas to spaces between the heat exchange pipes; and a circumscribed non-uniform flow suppression plate is provided along a minimum circumscribed circle which is tangent to outer surfaces of the plurality of heat exchange pipes.