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US 9,190,673 B2Granted
SOFC hot box components
AssigneeBloom Energy Corporation
InventorsSwaminathan Venkataraman, Vlad Kalika, David Weingaertner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Various hot box fuel cell system components are provided, such as heat exchangers, steam generator and other components.
Claims6
A method of operating a solid oxide fuel cell system, comprising:
- providing a solid oxide fuel cell stack anode exhaust stream to a splitter;
- providing a first portion of the anode exhaust stream from the splitter to an anode tail gas oxidizer (ATO);
- and
- providing a solid oxide fuel cell stack cathode exhaust stream to the ATO to oxidize the anode exhaust stream in the ATO;
- wherein no external fuel is provided to the ATO other than the anode exhaust stream;
- and
- wherein the splitter and the solid oxide fuel cell stack are located in the same hot box.
4 more elements
A method of operating a solid oxide fuel cell system, comprising:
- providing a solid oxide fuel cell stack anode exhaust stream to an anode tail gas oxidizer (ATO);
- and
- providing a solid oxide fuel cell stack cathode exhaust stream to the ATO to oxidize the anode exhaust stream in the ATO;
- wherein no external fuel is provided to the ATO other than the anode exhaust stream;
- providing a fuel inlet stream into the fuel cell stack;
- providing an air inlet stream into the fuel cell stack;
- providing the anode exhaust stream from the fuel cell stack into an anode recuperator heat exchanger to heat the fuel inlet stream before the fuel inlet stream reaches the fuel cell stack;
- providing the anode exhaust stream from the anode recuperator heat exchanger into a splitter;
- providing a first portion of the anode exhaust stream from the splitter into the ATO;
- providing a second portion of the anode exhaust stream from the splitter into an anode cooler heat exchanger to pre-heat the air inlet stream before it reaches the fuel cell stack;
- and
- providing the air inlet stream from the anode cooler into a cathode recuperator heat exchanger to heat the air inlet stream using an ATO exhaust stream before the air inlet stream reaches the fuel cell stack.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.