Steam/carbon ratio detection and control
AssigneeHyaxiom, Inc.
InventorsMichael T. LINES, John L. PRESTON
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An ejector receives steam at a primary inlet and natural gas at a secondary inlet. A computer responds to a signal indicating current in the load of a fuel cell as well as a signal indicating temperature of a steam reformer to move a linear actuator to control a needle that adjusts the size of the steam orifice. Reformate is fed to a separator scrubber which cools the reformate to its dew point indicated by a sensor. From that, a controller generates the fuel/carbon ratio for display and to bias a signal on a line regulating the amount of steam passing through an ejector to the inlet of the reformer. Alternatively, the reformate may be cooled to its dew point by a controllable heat exchanger in response to pressure and temperature signals.
Claims21
(canceled)
An apparatus, comprising:
- a reformer configured to provide reformate fluid;
- a scrubber downstream of the reformer, the scrubber being configured to at least partially remove ammonia from the reformate fluid;
- a temperature sensor that provides an indication of a temperature of the reformate fluid exiting the scrubber;
- a water level sensor that provides an indication of an amount of water in at least a selected portion of the scrubber;
- and
- a controller configured to determine the temperature of the reformate fluid based on the indication from the temperature sensor and whether the temperature of the reformate fluid is a dew point temperature based on the indication from the water level sensor.
A method, comprising:
- processing a reformate fluid within a scrubber that is downstream of a reformer;
- determining a temperature of the reformate fluid exiting the scrubber;
- determining an amount of water in at least a selected portion of the scrubber;
- and
- determining whether the temperature of the reformate fluid is a dew point temperature based on the determined amount of water.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.