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US 2006/0137350 A1Published application
Fuel cell in combined heat and electric power system
AssigneeUTC Fuel Cells, LLC
InventorsRobert Fredley, Bhimashankar Nitta
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Abstract
A fuel cell system having a fuel cell stack (9) employs a group of fuel cells between corresponding cooler plates (55). The system utilizes single phase coolant, the outflow of the coolant plates (55) being divided into a flow (78) just sufficient to provide adequate steam (68, 79) to a fuel reformer (58), the remainder of the coolant outlet flowing (76) directly to heat recovery and utilization apparatus (77), which may include fuel cell power plant accessories (85), such as chillers or boilers.
Claims3
A fuel cell and heat recovery system, comprising:
- a plurality of fuel cells interspersed with a plurality of cooler plates in a stack;
- a coolant pump providing single phase coolant through said plurality of cooler plates at a pressure above the saturation pressure of the coolant at the temperature of the coolant within said cooler plates;
- a hydrocarbon fuel reforming system for providing reformate fuel to said fuel cell stack;
- a steam generator for providing steam to said reforming system;
- heat recovery and utilization apparatus;
- and
- means for dividing the outflow of coolant exiting from said cooler plates to direct sufficient coolant to said steam generator so as to provide adequate steam to said fuel reforming system to generate sufficient reformate fuel for said fuel cell stack, the remainder of the outflow of coolant from said cooler plates being applied directly to said heat recovery and utilization apparatus.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.