Solid oxide fuel cell system and method of operating the same using peak shaving gas

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11876257-B2
Application number	US-202217845522-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 21, 2022
Priority date	Mar 27, 2018
Publication date	Jan 16, 2024
Grant date	Jan 16, 2024

Abstract

A fuel cell system and method for using a peak shaving gas, the system including: a fuel inlet configured to receive fuel from a fuel source; a catalytic partial oxidation (CPOx) reactor configured to at least partially oxidize the fuel during startup of the system; a blower configured to provide air to the CPOx reactor; a gas analyzer configured to determine a composition of fuel provided to the CPOx reactor from the fuel inlet; an oxidation catalyst configured to reduce an O 2 content of fuel received from the CPOx reactor; a reforming catalyst configured to partially reform fuel received from the oxidation catalyst; and a stack of fuel cells configured to generate electricity using fuel received from the reforming catalyst.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating a fuel cell system using a peak shaving fuel, the method comprising:
determining a composition of a fuel stream provided to the fuel cell system;
injecting air into the fuel stream, if an ethane, propane, or ethane and propane content of the fuel stream is determined to be greater than about 9 vol %;
providing the fuel stream to a reforming catalyst to generate a reformed fuel; and
providing the reformed fuel to a fuel cell stack.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the injecting air in the fuel stream comprises:
providing the fuel stream to a catalytic partial oxidation (CPOx) reactor; and
using a blower of the CPOx reactor to inject the air into the fuel stream, without igniting the CPOx reactor.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining the composition comprises using a gas analyzer disposed upstream of the CPOx reactor to determine the composition of the fuel stream.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the composition comprises receiving fuel stream composition data from a provider of the fuel stream, and wherein the fuel cells comprise solid oxide fuel cells.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting a temperature of a fuel stream after exiting the oxidation catalyst; and
increasing a flow rate of the fuel stream if the detected temperature is greater than a preset temperature.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting a voltage of the fuel cell stack;
decreasing a flow rate of the fuel stream, when a voltage of the fuel cell stack exceeds a first voltage; and
increasing the flow rate of the fuel stream, when the voltage of the fuel cell stack is less than a second voltage that is less than the first voltage.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing an anode exhaust stream from the fuel cell stack to an anode tail gas oxidizer (ATO);
detecting a temperature of the ATO;
increasing a flow rate of the fuel stream when the detected temperature is less than a first temperature; and
decreasing the flow rate of the fuel stream when the detected temperature is greater than a second temperature greater than the first temperature.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing the fuel stream to an oxidation catalyst to catalyze a reaction between any O 2 included in the fuel stream and at least one of H 2 and CO included in the fuel stream;
providing the fuel stream to a hydrogenation catalyst to catalyze a saturation reaction between any unsaturated hydrocarbons included in the fuel stream and the H 2 included in the fuel stream; and
providing the fuel stream from the hydrogenation catalyst to the reforming catalyst.

9. A method of operating a fuel cell system using a peak shaving fuel, the method comprising:
determining a composition of a fuel stream comprising the peak shaving fuel provided to the fuel cell system;
injecting air into the fuel stream, if an ethane, propane, or ethane and propane content of the fuel stream is determined to be greater than about 9 vol %;
providing the fuel stream to an oxidation catalyst to catalyze a reaction between any O 2 included in the fuel stream and at least one of H 2 and CO included in the fuel stream;
providing the fuel stream to a hydrogenation catalyst to catalyze a saturation reaction between any unsaturated hydrocarbons included in the fuel stream and the H 2 included in the fuel stream;
providing the fuel stream from the hydrogenation catalyst to a reforming catalyst to generate a reformed fuel; and
providing the reformed fuel to a fuel cell stack.

Assignees

• Bloom Energy Corp

Inventors

• Fisher John
• Krishnadass Jayakumar
• Weingaertner David
• Girwalkar Laxmikant
• Malviya Shraddesh

Classifications

• H01M8/04082 Primary

  Arrangements for control of reactant parameters, e.g. pressure or concentration · CPC title

• H01M8/0662

  Treatment of gaseous reactants or gaseous residues, e.g. cleaning · CPC title

• H01M8/1253

  the electrolyte containing zirconium oxide · CPC title

• H01M8/2404

  Processes or apparatus for grouping fuel cells · CPC title

• H01M8/0444 Primary

  Concentration; Density (H01M8/04492 takes precedence) · CPC title