Method for operating fuel cell system and method for estimating composition of fuel used in fuel cell system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10050293-B2
Application number	US-201514923854-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 27, 2015
Priority date	Nov 28, 2014
Publication date	Aug 14, 2018
Grant date	Aug 14, 2018

Abstract

A method for operating a fuel cell system including a fuel feeder supplying fuel, a reformer producing a hydrogen-containing gas by a reforming reaction, a fuel cell which includes a cathode and an anode, a combustor which combusts an anode off-gas discharged from the anode to produce a combustion gas, a temperature detector detecting the temperature of the combustion gas, and a storage device storing a preset target temperature profile, the target temperature profile including the temporal change in target temperature of the combustion gas in the operation of the fuel cell system, includes controlling the flow rate of the fuel supplied from the fuel feeder to the reformer in the operation such that the temperature detected by the temperature detector becomes equal to a target temperature determined on the basis of the target temperature profile.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for operating a fuel cell system including a fuel feeder supplying fuel, a reformer producing a hydrogen-containing gas by a reforming reaction using a reaction gas other than the fuel and the fuel supplied from the fuel feeder, a fuel cell which includes a cathode and an anode and which generates electricity using an oxidant gas supplied to the cathode and the hydrogen-containing gas supplied from the reformer to the anode, a combustor which combusts an anode off-gas discharged from the anode to produce a combustion gas, a temperature detector detecting the temperature of the combustion gas, and a storage device storing a preset target temperature profile, the target temperature profile including a temporal change in target temperature of the combustion gas in the operation of the fuel cell system, the method comprising
controlling the flow rate of the fuel supplied from the fuel feeder to the reformer in the operation such that the temperature detected by the temperature detector becomes equal to a target temperature determined on the basis of the target temperature profile.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the fuel cell system includes a vaporizer supplying steam to the reformer and the vaporizer controls the amount of steam to be supplied to the reformer to be constant in the operation.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the composition of the fuel supplied in the operation is estimated on the basis of the flow rate of the fuel in the operation and the composition of the fuel that is used as a basis for setting the target temperature profile.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the fuel cell is a solid oxide fuel cell.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a major component of the fuel is an alkane.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the preset target temperature profile is selected depending on outside air temperature, that the preset target temperature profile is stored in the storage device prior to a start-up operation.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising controlling the flow rate of the fuel supplied from the fuel feeder to the reformer such that the temperature detected by the temperature detector approaches the target temperature determined on the basis of the target temperature profile.

8. A method for estimating the composition of fuel used in a fuel cell system including a fuel feeder supplying fuel, a reformer producing a hydrogen-containing gas by a reforming reaction using a reaction gas other than the fuel and the fuel supplied from the fuel feeder, a fuel cell which includes a cathode and an anode and which generates electricity using an oxidant gas supplied to the cathode and the hydrogen-containing gas supplied from the reformer to the anode, a combustor which combusts an anode off-gas discharged from the anode to produce a combustion gas, a temperature detector detecting the temperature of the combustion gas, and a storage device storing a preset target temperature profile, the target temperature profile including a temporal change in target temperature of the combustion gas in the operation of the fuel cell system, the method comprising:
controlling the flow rate of the fuel supplied from the fuel feeder to the reformer in the operation such that the temperature detected by the temperature detector becomes equal to a target temperature determined on the basis of the target temperature profile; and
estimating the composition of the fuel on the basis of the flow rate of the fuel in the operation.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the fuel cell system includes a vaporizer supplying steam to the reformer and the vaporizer controls the amount of steam to be supplied to the reformer to be constant in the operation.

10. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the composition of the fuel is used as a basis for setting the target temperature profile.

11. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the fuel cell is a solid oxide fuel cell.

12. The method according to claim 8 , wherein a major component of the fuel is an alkane.

13. The method according to claim 8 , wherein the preset target temperature profile is selected depending on outside air temperature, that the preset target temperature profile is stored in the storage device prior to a start-up operation.

14. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising controlling the flow rate of the fuel supplied from the fuel feeder to the reformer such that the temperature detected by the temperature detector approaches the target temperature determined on the basis of the target temperature profile.

Assignees

• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Maruyama Takehiro
• Ukai Kunihiro

Classifications

• H01M8/04373

  of auxiliary devices, e.g. reformers, compressors, burners · CPC title

• H01M8/04776

  at auxiliary devices, e.g. reformer, compressor, burner · CPC title

• H01M8/0618 Primary

  Reforming processes, e.g. autothermal, partial oxidation or steam reforming · CPC title

• H01M2008/1293

  Fuel cells with solid oxide electrolytes · CPC title

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title