Air Bleed Through Fuel Cell Fuel Recycle Loop
OwnerMichael L. Perry, Craig E. Evansinventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a fuel cell power plant (9) air bleed is provided to the anode flow fields (13) of a stack (11) of fuel cells by introducing the air into the recycle loop (23, 24) upstream of the recycle drive (25). The source of air may be the cathode air supply device (31) that provides oxidant reactant gas to the cathode flow fields (14), or a separate, low pressure, low flow air pump (48) or a separate low pressure, low flow pump (45) connected from the cathode air supply devise (31) through flow controllers (41, 42) to the pressure side of the recycle loop (23, 24) at the exhaust of the anode flow fields (13).
Claims20
A fuel cell power plant (9) comprising:
- a stack (11) of fuel cells, each of the fuel cells including anode flow fields (13) having fuel inlets (18) and fuel exhaust (23), through which fuel reactant gas flows, and cathode flow fields (14) having air inlets (30), through which oxidant reactant gas flows;
- a fuel recycle loop (24, 25) interconnected between the fuel exhaust of said stack of fuel cells and the fuel inlets;
- a fuel source (20) connected to the fuel inlets;
- an air supply device (31) connected to the air inlets;
- characterized by:
- a fluid connection between said fuel exhaust and a source of air (31, 45, 48).
A method in a fuel cell power plant (9) comprising a stack (11) of fuel cells, each of the fuel cells including anode flow fields (13) having fuel inlets (18) and fuel exhaust (23), through which fuel reactant gas flows, and cathode flow fields (14) having air inlets (30), through which oxidant reactant gas flows, a fuel recycle loop (24, 25) interconnected between the fuel exhaust of said stack of fuel cells and the fuel inlets, a fuel source (20) connected to the fuel inlets, an air supply device (31) connected to the air inlets,
- characterized by:
- connecting said fuel exhaust to a source of air (31, 45, 48).
A method of providing air-bleed to the fuel (13, 18) flow in a fuel cell power plant (9) characterized by:
- injecting air (31, 45, 48) into a fuel recycle loop (23, 24) of the fuel cell power plant.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.