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US 8,211,583 B2Granted
Derivation of control parameters of fuel cell systems for flexible fuel operation
AssigneeBloom Energy Corporation
InventorsDavid Weingaertner, Arne Ballantine, Swaminathan Venkataraman
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Abstract
A method of operating a fuel cell system includes characterizing the fuel or fuels being provided into the fuel cell system, characterizing the oxidizing gas or gases being provided into the fuel cell system, and calculating at least one of the steam:carbon ratio, fuel utilization and oxidizing gas utilization based on the step of characterization.
Claims25
A method of operating a fuel cell system, comprising:
- characterizing a fuel being provided into the fuel cell system, wherein the step of characterizing the fuel comprises obtaining a measure of a quantity of a constituent in a sample of the fuel;
- and
- calculating a fuel utilization based on the step of characterizing the fuel,
- wherein the fuel utilization is calculated according to the following formula:
- Fuel Utilization (%)=100%*((Average Cell Current (in Amps)*Number of Cells)/F)/((4*(mol C atoms/mol fuel)+(mol H atoms/mol Fuel)−2*(mol O atoms/mol Fuel)−(4*(% O2)/100%)*CPOx flow (in mol/sec)).
2 more elements
A method of operating a fuel cell system, comprising:
- characterizing a fuel being provided into the fuel cell system, wherein said fuel comprises a fuel comprising carbon and hydrogen and wherein characterizing the fuel comprises obtaining a composition of the fuel based on at least one of location or time of year;
- characterizing an oxidizing gas being provided into the fuel cell system, wherein:
- the oxidizing gas being provided into the fuel cell system is air;
- local atmospheric information is used for said characterizing the oxidizing gas;
- and
- said local atmospheric information comprises ambient temperature, ambient
- pressure and relative humidity of the air;
- and
- calculating at least one of steam:carbon (S:C) ratio, fuel utilization and oxidizing gas utilization based on the steps of characterizing the fuel and the oxidizing gas.
6 more elements
A method of operating a fuel cell system, comprising:
- characterizing a mixture of two or more fuels being provided into the fuel cell system, wherein said two or more fuels have distinct carbon contents, hydrogen contents, and/or oxygen contents and wherein the step of characterizing the fuel mixture comprises obtaining a measure of a quantity of a constituent in a sample of the fuel;
- characterizing an oxidizing gas being provided into the fuel cell system, wherein said oxidizing gas comprises air, wherein the step of characterizing the oxidizing gas comprises obtaining a measure of a quantity of a constituent in a sample of the oxidizing gas based on local atmospheric information and wherein said local atmospheric information comprises ambient temperature, ambient pressure and relative humidity;
- and
- calculating at least one of steam:carbon (S:C) ratio, fuel utilization and oxidizing gas utilization based on the steps of characterizing the fuel and the oxidizing gas.
1 more element
A method of operating a fuel cell system, wherein the fuel cell system comprises an anode side that receives the fuel, the method comprising:
- characterizing a fuel being provided into the fuel cell system, wherein the step of characterizing the fuel comprises obtaining a measure of a quantity of a constituent in a sample of the fuel;
- characterizing an oxidizing gas being provided into the anode side of the fuel cell system, wherein the oxidizing gas is air, wherein the step of characterizing the oxidizing gas comprises:
- obtaining a measure of a quantity of a constituent in a sample of the oxidizing gas;
- obtaining local atmospheric information comprising ambient temperature, ambient pressure and relative humidity of the air;
- and
- characterizing the constituent in the sample using the measure and the local atmospheric information;
- and
- calculating a fuel utilization based on the steps of characterizing the fuel and characterizing the oxidizing gas.
5 more elements
A method of operating a fuel cell system, comprising:
- characterizing a fuel being provided into the fuel cell system,
- wherein said fuel comprises a fuel comprising carbon and hydrogen,
- wherein said fuel is selected from the group consisting of methane, natural gas, propane, alcohol, and syngas derived from coal or natural gas reformation,
- wherein the step of characterizing the fuel comprises obtaining a measure of a quantity of a constituent in a sample of the fuel, and
- wherein obtaining the measure of a quantity of the constituent in the sample of the fuel comprises obtaining a composition of the fuel based on at least one of location or time of year;
- and
- calculating a fuel utilization based on the step of characterizing the fuel.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.