The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 16, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 30, 2000
Robert E. Dean, Rexford, NY (US);
Norm Peschke, Clifton Park, NY (US);
Anton Scholten, Apeldoorn, NL;
Kenneth M. Rush, Jr., Clifton Park, NY (US);
Mihail Penev, Clifton Park, NY (US);
Thomas D. Prevish, Ballston Lake, NY (US);
Plug Power Inc., Latham, NY (US);
Abstract
A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack, which during operation generates electrical energy by reacting a first stream of reactant gas and a second stream of reactant gas. The fuel cell stack also produces a fuel cell exhaust stream. An oxidizer unit is positioned to receive the fuel cell exhaust stream and oxidize at least a part of the fuel cell exhaust stream during operation, to produce an oxidizer exhaust stream. A heat recovery system is positioned to receive the oxidizer exhaust stream. The heat recovery system transfers at least some heat from the oxidizer exhaust stream to an input stream to generate a heated stream of water. In some embodiments, a temperature sensor is positioned to sense the temperature of the heated input stream. A control system maintains the heated stream of water at a target temperature based on the sensed temperature by controlling the amount of the heat from the oxidizer exhaust stream that is transferred to the input stream.