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. 30, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 18, 1999
Robert A. Lacy, Scotia, NY (US);
Plug Power Inc., Latham, NY (US);
Abstract
A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack, an inverter, a reformer and a circuit. The fuel cell stack is adapted to produce heat in response to a fuel flow, and the inverter is coupled to the fuel cell stack and is adapted to use electrical energy produced by the fuel cell stack to furnish electrical power that is received by a power grid. The reformer is adapted to produce the fuel flow, and the circuit is adapted to interact with the reformer to produce an approximate predetermined amount of heat. The circuit also determines cell voltages of the fuel cell stack, selects the minimum cell voltage, and interacts with the inverter to regulate the amount of the electrical power that is furnished by the inverter based on the selected voltage.