Solid oxide fuel cell assembly
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsHonggang Wang, Michael Anthony Benjamin, Seung-Hyuck Hong, Richard L. Hart
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for operating a fuel cell assembly, the fuel cell assembly including a fuel cell stack having a solid oxide fuel cell, the solid oxide fuel cell having an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte, the method including: determining a temperature setpoint for the fuel cell stack, for output products of the fuel cell stack, or both; and controlling a volume of oxidant provided to the anode in response to the determined temperature setpoint to control a temperature of the fuel cell stack, a temperature of the output products of the fuel cell stack, or both.
Claims14
A method for operating a fuel cell assembly integrated into a gas turbine engine, the fuel cell assembly comprising a fuel cell stack having a solid oxide fuel cell and a plurality of combustion outlets, the solid oxide fuel cell having an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte, the method comprising:
- providing a fuel from a fuel source of the gas turbine engine to an air processing unit and to a fuel processing unit;
- outputting a hydrogen rich fuel stream from the fuel processing unit to the anode;
- determining a temperature setpoint within the fuel cell stack upstream from the plurality of combustion outlets;
- controlling a volume of oxidant provided to the anode in response to the determined temperature setpoint to control a temperature of the fuel cell stack upstream from the plurality of combustion outlets;
- routing a first portion of output products originating from the cathode of the solid oxide fuel cell to the air processing unit to combust with the fuel in the air processing unit;
- and
- providing a second portion of the output products from the solid oxide fuel cell to the gas turbine engine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.