Avl List Gmbh

Martin Hauth

Nikolaus Soukup

Stefan Weissensteiner

Michael Seidl

The present invention relates to a method for heating a fuel cell system () comprising at least one fuel cell stack () with an anode portion () and a cathode portion (), and a reformer () upstream of the anode portion () for steam reforming using a fuel, the reformer () comprising a nickel-based catalyst, said method having the following steps: starting a heating process for heating the fuel cell system () with a heating device () and conducting a carbon-containing fluid and conducting steam through the nickel-based catalyst of the reformer () during the heating process. The invention also relates to a fuel cell system () which is designed to carry out a method according to the invention.

Method for heating a fuel cell system and fuel cell system

The present invention relates to a fuel cell system comprising a fuel supply unit, at least one high-temperature fuel cell having a cathode and an anode and an electrolyte between the cathode and anode. The cathode has a cathode supply line and the anode has an anode supply line, wherein the anode is fluidically connected via the anode supply line to the fuel supply unit. Furthermore, a reforming device is arranged in the anode supply line. In addition, an anode exhaust gas line is provided for at least discharging anode exhaust gas from the anode. The fuel cell system has an exhaust gas heat exchanger for cooling exhaust gas and a recirculation conveyor for returning anode exhaust gas to the reforming device. The recirculation conveyor and the exhaust gas heat exchanger are connected to one another in fluid communication for respective cooling via a common cooling circuit, which has a central cooling fluid store as a fluid source with a heat exchanger and in which cooling fluid can be circulated in a cooling line. In addition, the cooling circuit has at least one pump for conveying cooling fluid. The invention further relates to a method for cooling a fuel cell system.

Fuel cell system

The invention relates to a measuring method for determining the recirculation rate (RR) in the anode gas circuit () of a fuel cell system () with fuel cell (), wherein an anode gas () from an anode chamber () is supplied to the fuel cell () by means of a gas conveying device () via an anode gas recirculation line () and thermostated in an anode gas heat exchanger () arranged in the anode gas recirculation line (). The following method steps are carried out for this purpose:

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Graz, Austria

Martin Hauth