Bloom Energy Corporation

Nilanjana Basu

Martin Perry

Michael Petrucha

David Weingaertner

Navaneetha Krishnan

William David Lyle

Matthias Gottmann

Swaminathan Venkataraman

David Edmonston

Ram Ramanan

Yashas Keshav

John Fisher

Srikanth Ranganathan

Vlad Kalika

Kyle Kekelis

Natarajan Ramanan

Victor Fung

Karanpal Bhangu

Ananda Sundararajan

Victor Silva

Virpaul Bains

Hemant Gedam

Nandan Joshi

Annamalai Raman

A fuel cell system anode tail gas oxidizer (ATO) includes an inner ATO wall, an outer ATO wall, and a first catalyst ring disposed in a chamber formed between the inner ATO wall and the outer ATO wall. The first catalyst ring includes an inner wall, an outer wall, and a matrix disposed between the inner wall and the outer wall and loaded with an oxidation catalyst.

Fuel cell system including catalyst ring anode tail gas oxidizer

A fuel cell column includes a plurality of fuel cell stacks, at least one fuel manifold configured to provide fuel to the plurality of fuel cell stacks, and at least one heat sink insert located between adjacent fuel cells of the plurality of fuel cell stacks. A fuel cell column including at least one heat sink insert located between adjacent fuel cell stacks of the column may reduce the peak temperatures of the fuel cell stacks adjacent to the heat sink inserts and may provide a smaller temperature distribution within the fuel cell stacks and within the column as a whole.

Fuel cell stack assembly including heat sink inserts

Various embodiments of a reactant feed and return assembly, such as an anode splitter plate (ASP), are provided for facilitating reactant feed flow in a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack system. Embodiments include a reactant feed and return assembly including at least one nozzle structure along a flow path of a reactant feed to a fuel cell stack. The at least one nozzle structure may include a width dimension that decreases along the flow path of the reactant. The at least one nozzle structure of the assembly may accelerate the reactant feed as it enters the adjacent fuel cell stack and may provide the reactant feed with sufficient kinetic energy to negate the effects of an increase in viscous resistance along the reactant flow path through the fuel cell stack.

Reactant feed and return assembly for fuel cell stacks including a nozzle structure

A fuel cell system includes a stack of fuel cells, a cathode recuperator configured to heat air using cathode exhaust output from the stack, and an air inlet baffle disposed between the cathode recuperator and the stack and containing at least two rows of apertures which are separated along a vertical direction and configured to provide the heated air output from the cathode recuperator to plural areas of the stack.

Fuel cell system including air inlet baffle and method of operating thereof

A fuel cell system includes a plurality of fuel cell stacks or columns, each fuel cell stack or column containing a plurality of fuel cells, and at least one pressure drop tool located in a fuel path of at least one first fuel cell stack or column but not in a fuel path of at least one second fuel cell stack or column.

Method of equalizing the pressure drop of fuel cell columns

One method of operating a fuel cell system including splitting a cathode exhaust from one or more fuel cell stacks in the system into a majority cathode exhaust stream comprising more than 50% of the cathode exhaust and a first cathode exhaust bypass stream, providing the majority cathode exhaust stream to an inlet of an anode tail gas oxidizer (ATO) containing a catalyst and providing the first cathode bypass stream downstream of the catalyst such that it bypasses the catalyst. Another method includes providing an air inlet stream to the SOFC system via a main air inlet, providing the air inlet stream from the main air inlet to a cathode recuperator, and providing a cooling medium to a heat exchanger to cool the cathode recuperator.

SOFC with cathode exhaust partial bypass of the ATO and additional air cooling of a hotbox

Various hot box fuel cell system components are provided, such as heat exchangers, steam generator and other components.

SOFC hot box components

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Nilanjana Basu