Ceres Intellectual Property Company Limited

Mark Selby

Paul Barnard

Robert Morgan

Christopher John Evans

Tomasz Domanski

Lee Rees

Stephen Phillip

Stephen Hill

Andrew Hazell

Farzad Barari

Chris Nobbs

A stack () of intermediate temperature, metal-supported, solid oxide fuel cell units (), each unit comprising a metal support substrate (), a spacer () and an interconnect () that each have compression bolt holes (), fuel inlet port (), fuel outlet port () and air outlet () therein, wherein bolt voids () are formed by aligning the bolt holes and a further void () by aligning the air outlets, and the voids are vented, for example, to the environment or further void to prevent the build-up of fuel, moisture or ions.

Stack of intermediate temperature, metal-supported, solid oxide fuel cell units

The present invention is concerned with improved fuel cell systems and methods. The present invention provides an intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cell (IT-SOFC) system comprising: (i) at least one fuel cell stack comprising at least one intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cell, and having an anode inlet, a cathode inlet, an anode off-gas outlet, a cathode off-gas outlet, and defining separate flow paths for flow of anode inlet gas, cathode inlet gas, anode off-gas and cathode off-gas; and (ii) a steam reformer for reforming a hydrocarbon fuel to a reformate, and having a reformer inlet for anode inlet gas, a reformer outlet for exhausting anode inlet gas, and a reformer heat exchanger; and defining: (a) an anode inlet gas fluid flow path from a fuel source to said steam reformer to said at least one fuel cell stack anode inlet; (b) an anode off-gas fluid flow path from said at least one fuel cell stack anode off-gas outlet to a fuel cell system exhaust; (c) a cathode inlet gas fluid flow path from an at least one oxidant inlet to said reformer heat exchanger to said at least one fuel cell stack cathode inlet; and (d) a cathode off-gas fluid flow path from said at least one fuel cell stack cathode off-gas outlet to said fuel cell system exhaust; wherein said reformer heat exchanger is a parallel-flow heat exchanger in fluid flow communication with (i) said at least one oxidant inlet and said at least one fuel cell stack cathode inlet, and (ii) said fuel source and said at least one fuel cell stack anode inlet, and is arranged for exchanging heat between said cathode inlet gas and said anode inlet gas.

Fuel cell stack and steam reformer systems and methods

A fuel cell system comprising a controller, a temperature sensor that has a physical presence in a conduit within the system to measure the temperature of the fluid at a point within the conduit (T) and a wall temperature sensor for sensing a temperature of a wall of the conduit (T). The controller takes Tand Tas inputs and applies an equation with known constants to calculate measurement error of Tbased on the local flow temperature and geometry and arrives at a calculated temperature. The equation may be applied iteratively until the difference between the calculated temperature and Tis below an acceptable value when the calculated temperature can then be assumed to be an accurate representation of the actual gas temperature at the Tmeasurement point. The direction of calculation is controlled by the relative difference between Tand T.

Temperature measuring method

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Horsham, United Kingdom

Mark Selby