Process for Evaporating a Liquid Fuel and a Mixing Chamber for Performing This Process

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This patent describes a novel two-stage process for completely evaporating liquid fuels, even those with heavy or complex components like diesel. In the first stage, the fuel is partially evaporated by mixing it with a hot primary medium (preferably superheated steam). In the second stage, a secondary oxidizing medium (like air) is introduced, partially oxidizing the already vaporized fraction to generate heat needed to completely evaporate the remaining fuel. The process is performed inside a specially designed mixing chamber that enhances efficient mixing and evaporation while preventing soot formation.

Use CasesContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Producing hydrogen-rich gas by reforming liquid fuels for fuel cells, especially in automotive applications.
• Supplying clean, soot-free fuel vapor for industrial reformers and chemical synthesis systems.
• Generating homogeneous fuel-air or fuel-oxidizer mixtures for high-efficiency combustion systems.
• Retrofitting diesel or multi-component fuel handling systems to reduce particulate emissions and fouling.
• Enabling the use of lower-quality fuels (with heavy fractions) for energy systems without soot buildup.

BenefitsContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Complete evaporation of complex or heavy fraction fuels, avoiding unburned residues.
• Significantly reduces soot (carbon) formation, preventing fouling of catalytic reformers and maintaining operational efficiency.
• Enables efficient and reliable reforming of liquid fuels into hydrogen-rich gases suitable for fuel cells.
• Enhances the lifespan and reduces maintenance of downstream catalytic equipment by avoiding carbon deposition.
• Improves energy efficiency by using exothermic partial oxidation for the necessary evaporation heat.
• Enables the use of more cost-effective or lower-grade fuels by fully vaporizing even their heavy components.

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Patent Abstract

A process with which a liquid fuel is evaporated completely in two stages is provided. In the first stage, the fuel is mixed with a hot primary medium and partly evaporated. In the second stage, the already evaporated fuel fraction is partly oxidized, which provides the heat for the complete evaporation of the fuel fractions which are yet to be evaporated. A fuel-air mixture for a reformer can be obtained with an advantageous embodiment of the process, in which the fuel is mixed homogeneously with oxidizing agent in the inventive evaporation. For the performance of the process, a mixing chamber is provided.