Abstract:
A process and apparatus are disclosed for inexpensively, automatically, continuously and smartly transferring metal to electronic energy. Said process and apparatus comprise a removable cartridge and multilevel chambers. Said cartridge contains solid metals such as Al, Zn, Mg. etc that can react with water to produce hydrogen and materials such as Na, K, KOH or NaOH etc that can form acid or alkali solutions. Said process and apparatus have functions of automatically adjusting water level and pressure, stopping alkali or acid leaking to outside and real-time controlling yielding rate of hydrogen etc by only using weight, spring force and buoyant force. This system or apparatus is an inexpensive portable power plant that can replace traditional batteries, direct metal-air fuel cells, direct methanol fuel cells and hydrogen-consuming fuel cells that need accessory hydrogen storage system. This process and apparatus also can be used as portable hydrogen generator.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    This invention relates generally to the field of electronic energy generator, and more particularly to system for transferring metal to electronic energy.  
           [0002]    The use of hydrogen/oxygen (air) fuel cell as zero-emission, environmental friendly power sources has been of increasing interest since fuel cell was invented about 150 years ago. However, even by now we cannot tell exactly how far away a fuel cell is from its successful commercialization before several crucial technologies being successfully developed. Suitable and convenient storage and delivery system of hydrogen is one of the biggest barriers against successful commercialization of fuel cell. Obviously, existing technologies of hydrogen storage and delivery don&#39;t match fuel cell&#39;s requirement at all.  
           [0003]    Realizing hydrogen storage, delivery and producing system will take a crucial role in commercialization of fuel cell and obvious deficiencies of existing technologies for hydrogen storage and delivery, alternative fuel cells and alternative technologies of fuel are being developed. Alternative technologies of fuel include reforming methanol and gasoline, high or super-high pressure storage technology and solid hydrogen storage etc. Alternative fuel cells include direct methanol fuel cell, direct metal air fuel cell and direct borohydride fuel cell etc. However, all these alternatives still have a long way to reach their goal.  
           [0004]    This invention combines hydrogen-oxygen (air) fuel cell and hydrogen generator together. By using the mature technologies existing in hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell and getting in-suit hydrogen continuously, reliably and smartly from the attached hydrogen generator, this invention provides a novel way to make fuel cell successful.  
           [0005]    Everyone knows that in mobile computing, the equipment is only as good as the power supply that runs it. While processors get faster, networks get wider and applications get smarter, the power supply that runs all these continue to lag. The best supplies for mobile computing according to today&#39;s standards includes batteries such as Li batteries and alkali batteries etc, rechargeable batteries such as Pb-Acid, Ni-MH and Li-ion etc rechargeable batteries, fuel cells such as hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell and solid oxide fuel cell etc; Alternative fuel cells such as direct methanol fuel cell, direct metal air fuel cell and direct sodium borohydride fuel cell etc.  
           [0006]    However, traditional batteries even including the most powerful batteries such as Li batteries and alkali batteries cannot give us a continuous power supply. Once the materials inside these batteries are reacted or used out, they are dead. Rechargeable batteries such as Ni/Cd, Ni/MH Pb/acid and Li-ion batteries can be recharged several hundreds times, but their capacities are limited. For example even the most powerful Li-ion rechargeable battery can only run a laptop for about 3 hours and with the increasing of charge-discharge cycles most people will find the capacity will be gradually decreased till finally useless within about one year. Traditional fuel cell, especially polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEM Fuel Cell) is a promising power source for mobile computing because it can run for several thousands or more hours even at ambient temperature. However, it needs hydrogen as fuel and therefore, an extra hydrogen tanker or accessory hydrogen storage-delivery system is needed, which is becoming the biggest barrier against this kind of fuel cell&#39;s successful commercialization. An extra hydrogen tanker or storage system is always inconvenient, expensive or dangerous for a flammable gas. A stationary application is even asked to take attention, let alone portable and personal applications. In order to remove this barrier, many efforts and technologies such as hydrogen storage system, hydrogen reform system, water electrolysis system, sodium water system, sodium borohydride water system, high pressure or super high pressure tanker storage system and even wood steam system etc have been made. But even by today we cannot say these system are suitable for fuel cells because of their limitations such as limited capacity, heavy, complex, safety problem, requirement of extra electronic energy or high cost and reliability etc. For example U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,341 disclosed a system and apparatus using Al and Li metal to react with water to produce hydrogen for fuel cell or Ranike cycle engine. In this process, Al and Li metals are required to melt together first and then a kind of nuzzle is used to control the amount of fuel, by which to control the yielding rate of hydrogen. It has two deficiencies: one is the controlling of nuzzle is complex and consumes extra electronic energy, which makes it very difficult to become a portable and inexpensive application. The second deficiency is this system needs high-pressure hydrogen storage devices, which classifies this invention to traditional high-pressure storage of hydrogen. Every one knows 1 g Al produces 1.24 l hydrogen gas and mechanical operation of nuzzle without real-time feedback is difficult to get exact amount of fuel within 1 g of accuracy. 10 grams of error will get 12.4 liters hydrogen. Therefore, no need high-pressure devices to store these hydrogen is impossible. Sodium was also reported to generate hydrogen for fuel cell by reacting with water. However, said sodium must be covered a protection layer on its surface to stop water reacting with it when no hydrogen was needed. A device with knifes was then needed to cut this protection layer off and let sodium react with water to produce hydrogen. This technology faces the same deficiency as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,341. U.S. Pat. No. 6,440,385 B1 disclosed another method to produce hydrogen by neutral water and Al composite materials. Everyone knows Al can react with water to produce hydrogen at solution of pH&lt;1 and pH&gt;11. The biggest patentability of this technology is mixing Al and cement into composite and then yielding hydrogen at proper temperature only from neutral water. Although, this patent provides a novel chemical process to produce hydrogen from metal Al, but how to apply this reaction to fuel cell and energy generating system remains unsolved. In fact, a process and apparatus for hydrogen storage and delivery we really need is like a battery without lifetime limited. Beside inexpensive, safe, convenient, compact and portable, it works when needs it to work and stop or is dormant when doesn&#39;t.  
           [0007]    Alternative fuel cells such as direct methanol fuel cell, direct metal air fuel cell and even direct borohydride fuel cell etc use liquid or solid fuels. As there are no problem of hydrogen storage and delivery, these fuel cells are always promising power supplies for mobile computing. All these fuel cells are developed by the concept of directly splitting fuels into ions or protons and then transferring them through membrane at the form of H 3 O +  or other ion complex to produce electronic energy. As the transferring pattern of ion and proton is the same as they are made in traditional hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell, many unsolved and unique technology problems such as crossover, low potential, low efficiency, short life time and low reliability etc give these fuel cells a long way before their successful commercialization.  
           [0008]    Therefore, a process and apparatus that is between traditional hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells and alternative fuel cells will be a promising power supply for mobile computing. This will is a novel method that is no need extra hydrogen storage and delivery system as required by traditional fuel cells and avoids splitting liquid or solid fuels directly into ions or protons as used in alternative fuel cells. That&#39;s the invention.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0009]    The primary object of the invention is to provide a process and apparatus for inexpensively, continuously, smartly, reliably and automatically transferring metal to electronic energy.  
           [0010]    Another object of the invention is to provide a portable and reliable electronic energy generator for any device that needs portable or moveable power supply.  
           [0011]    Another object of the invention is to provide an inexpensive, portable and reliable power plant to replace traditional batteries, direct metal air fuel cells, direct methanol fuel cell and fuel cells that need accessory hydrogen storage devices.  
           [0012]    A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus and process that simply combines hydrogen generator and fuel cell or hydrogen-consuming engine together to produce portable electronic power.  
           [0013]    Yet another object of the invention is to provide an alternative pattern to transfer metal to electronic energy by avoiding many barriers of technology existed in alternative fuel cell. These barriers of technology include crossover and low potential in direct methanol fuel cell, low life time, low efficiency and low reliability in direct metal fuel cell, requirement of extra or accessory hydrogen delivery and storage system in traditional fuel cell.  
           [0014]    Still yet another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus or system for automatically, continuously yielding hydrogen with real-time feedback from metal and water.  
           [0015]    Another object of the invention is to provide a method or process for hydrogen generating from metal without leaking of acid or alkali solution or provide a novel method to stop alkali or acid solution leaking in reaction of liquid with solid.  
           [0016]    Another object of the invention is to provide a system or apparatus for yielding hydrogen by automatically controlling its pressure and rate without consuming electronic energy.  
           [0017]    A further object of the invention is to provide an inexpensive method for produce hydrogen with automatically controlled process.  
           [0018]    Yet another object of the invention is to provide a system or apparatus of producing hydrogen for fuel cell or other devices that consumes hydrogen. 
       
    
    
       [0019]    Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following descriptions, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein, by way of illustration and example, and embodiment of the present invention is disclosed.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 1 represents the whole process of this invention  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 2 represents outlet of hydrogen with structure of making hydrogen flow at rotational plus zag-zig pattern. It has similar structure and function as device showed in FIG. 3  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 3 represents inside structure of device that connects chambers. It has similar inside structure and function as device showed in FIG. 2  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 4 represents the one-way pressure valve located on the top of device showed in FIG. 3. 
     
    
       [0024]    The drawings constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments to the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. It is to be understood that in some instances various aspects of the invention may be shown exaggerated or enlarged to facilitate an understanding of the invention.  
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0025]    Detailed descriptions of the preferred embodiment are provided herein. It is to be understood, however, that the present invention may be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but rather as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to employ the present invention in virtually any appropriately detailed system, structure or manner.  
         [0026]    In accordance with the present invention, FIG. 1 shows the whole ideas of this invention. First lets introduce structures of some devices in this invention. Electronic energy will be generated by PEM fuel cell that can be differently designed according to the output required by electronic devices. Today&#39;s PEM fuel cells can easily reach a current density of 500-600 mA/cm 2  at 0.7V even by using dry hydrogen and oxygen. An average hydrogen flow of 1 ml/second can support a current of 8.6A theoretically, which is twice of the current required by a laptop computer. According to these parameters, an attached fuel cell with required output and its correspondent hydrogen yielding reaction will be easy to design. The attached fuel cell is hidden in this Figure. Device  61  represents a valve, from which the hydrogen yielded in this invention flows into fuel cell to produce electronic energy. Structure  62  is outlet of hydrogen that has an inside structure for making hydrogen flow at a zag-zig plus rotational pattern to valve  61 . During its zag-zig plus rotationally flow, alkali water containing in hydrogen will be separated. Inside cartridge  63  are solid materials of metal Al, KOH or NaOH. These materials have two functions—forming alkali solution and splitting water to hydrogen. Of course, inside cartridge also may be any metals or alloys that can react with water or other liquids to produce hydrogen, or any materials that can form alkali or acid solution with water or other liquids. As connected surface area between solid and liquid is one of the main factors to control chemical reaction rate, these materials in cartridge may need to be treated as different shapes, structures and compositions for obtaining required reaction rate. Modern materials science and engineering technology made these treatments mature and inexpensive. Valve  65  connects chamber  67 ,  68  and  69 . Buoyant  64  automatically controls valve  65 &#39;s opening and closing through its buoyant force and weight. Buoyant  65  also controls the water level in cartridge  63 . The water level (be represented as “h” in FIG. 1) in cartridge is a very important parameter to control the rate of hydrogen yielding. The higher the water level in cartridge  63  is, the larger the connected surface area between metal Al and water will be and finally, the higher the reaction rate of hydrogen yielding from cartridge  63  is. Devices  67 ,  68  and  69  are three chambers located in different levels. They connect each other by valve  65 , device  66  and valve  70 . Device  66  has almost the same inside structure as device  62 , by which makes fluid (including water and air) flow to valve  70  at a rotational plus zag-zig and cushion pattern. Meanwhile, by giving device  66  enough volume to reserve water and reserving air in the top of device  66  through the closing of valve  70 , alkali and water will be mainly or completely kept in  66  but not to go to chamber  68  and  69 . Therefore, the concentration of alkali solution in chamber  68  is far less than in chamber  67 . And in chamber  69  there is almost no alkali solution. As inside the top chamber  69  is almost neutral water, the problem of sealing alkali or acid solution existing in industries such as in batteries industry and chemical industry etc will be easily solved here. Valve  70  is a one-way valve that can be opened at a given pressure. It keeps the pressure in cartridge and chambers in safety. Valve  70  also has the function to control the pressure of yielded hydrogen and stop water flowing back to the lower chambers. Valve  65 ,  70  are normally closed during producing of electronic energy and hydrogen.  
         [0027]    Followings are the operation steps, processes and functions comprised in this invention or how this invention works. First pouring water into chamber  69 . Water flows to the chamber  68 , then to  67  and finally reaches to cartridge  63 . Once the water in cartridge  63  reaches a given level to make buoyant  64  float, valve  65  will be automatically closed and chamber  67 ,  68  and  69  are disconnected. Inside cartridge, solid KOH will dissolve to become alkali solution. Or just adding some extra acid or alkali solution into cartridge to form a solution with pH&lt;4 or pH&gt;9. Then metal Al etc in cartridge will react with water to produce hydrogen according to the following reactions:  
         [0028]    2Al+6H 2 O → 2Al(OH) 3 +3H 2 ↑ 
         [0029]    The yielded hydrogen goes up through device  62  to separate alkali solution and then to fuel cell. Fuel cell will consume this hydrogen to produce electronic energy by the following reaction  
         [0030]    2H 2 +O 2 (air) →H 2 O+electronic energy  
         [0031]    According to above reaction, 100 grams Al plus 200 gram water produces 124 liters hydrogen, which is equal to about 340 Ah capacity of electronic energy. For example, a 4 Ah capacity of battery runs a laptop for about 2 hours, 340 Ah capacity of electronic energy produced from 100 gram Al will run a laptop for about 172 hours theoretically, which is equal to 7 whole days.  
         [0032]    Considering 1 L/min flow of hydrogen can support about 143.6 A of current, 1 ml/second of yielding rate of hydrogen will support 8.6 A of current, which is twice the current required by a laptop. Such a low rate of hydrogen yielding is not only easy to be carried out for a 100 gram granular Al without any extra treatment, but also makes it easy to keep the whole apparatus small enough for a portable or personal application. Of course, an extra treatment for increasing surface area of Al granular my be needed for other applications.  
         [0033]    With fuel cell continuously producing electronic energy, hydrogen will be continuously consumed and water in cartridge  63  and chamber  67  will of course to be continuously consumed. Once water in cartridge  63  and chamber  67  is consumed to a low level, buoyant  64  will have not enough buoyant force to close valve  65 . And then valve  65  will automatically open to supply more water from the upper chambers. As these processes above keep repeating, the water in cartridge and chamber  67  always keeps the same level. Electronic energy or hydrogen will be continuously produced until the metal Al in cartridge is used out and then a new cartridge is changed.  
         [0034]    When fuel cell needs less or no need hydrogen any more or the yielding rate of hydrogen is larger than consuming rate by fuel cell, pressure in cartridge  63  will increase. The increased pressure will force the water in cartridge  63  back to chamber  67 , or even through  66  and valve  70  to chamber  68  or  69 . As the water is forced back to chamber, less or no Al will connect with water and less or no hydrogen will be produced any more. By this process, the yielding rate of hydrogen will be automatically controlled or real-time feedbacked by the requirement of the attached fuel cell. This process also keeps pressure of hydrogen in cartridge and fuel cell constant.  
         [0035]    Device  66 &#39;s volume and inner structure are very important. Its volume must be larger enough to reserve the water forced back from cartridge and also need to keep some space on the top for air cushion, which has function to limit alkali leaking. For example, if applying this invention to a laptop that is required to run for about 2 days, 50 grams Al and 100 grams water are necessary. Designing the yielding rate of hydrogen as 1 ml/second and assuming the hydrogen will stop yielding 1 minute later after the water and Al disconnected. Therefore, a total volume of 200 ml for chamber  67  and device  66  together will large enough for this application. Considering water always being divided to pour in at several times in fact, this volume can be further minimized. Inside  66  is a structure of making water and air go through valve  70  to upper chambers at a zag-zig plus rotational pattern, which makes alkali contained in the air separated. By this way the upper chambers always have lower concentration of alkali or acid than the lower chambers.  
         [0036]    For a device using alkali or acid solution to yield hydrogen or other gases, one of the big problems is the leaking of alkali or acid solution to outside. This problem even exists in alkali battery industry. As mentioned above, this invention comprises a multi levels chamber  67 ,  68  and  69  that can be automatically connected or disconnected each other at a real-time feedback pattern according to the rate of hydrogen consumed by fuel cell. During this feedback process, fresh water can go freely from the upper chamber to the lower chamber and at the same time alkali or acid solution will be stopped going up to the upper chamber. By this way, inside the top chamber  69  is almost no alkali or acid solution, which make this device easy to seal and this invention suitable for portable or personal applications.  
         [0037]    Once applying this invention to portable or personal applications, safety becomes the most important consideration. As hydrogen is the lightest gas and has the smallest atom in the world, its diffusion or dilution rate in air is far higher that 1 ml/second that is the designed yielding rate of hydrogen to support about 8.6 A of current as mentioned above. Considering a laptop only needs a 4-5A of maximum current, therefore, unless in a very small and defined space without airflow at all, such a device designed for a laptop application should not have safety problems. Of course such a device can not properly be used in a small and defined space where there is lower oxygen or no oxygen at all because the attached fuel cell needs oxygen.  
         [0038]    While the invention has been described in connection with a preferred embodiment, it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to the particular form set forth, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover such alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.