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:
Aug. 30, 2005
Filed:
Sep. 06, 2002
Mohammed E. H. Sennoun, Rochester, NY (US);
William H. Pettit, Rochester, NY (US);
Rodney L. Borup, Los Alamos, NM (US);
Gerald E. Voecks, Fairport, NY (US);
Mohammed E. H. Sennoun, Rochester, NY (US);
William H. Pettit, Rochester, NY (US);
Rodney L. Borup, Los Alamos, NM (US);
Gerald E. Voecks, Fairport, NY (US);
General Motors Corporation, Detroit, MI (US);
Abstract
A compact autothermal (partial oxidation and steam reforming) fuel reactor is provided for implementation with a fuel cell system. The reactor includes a premixing chamber for premixing a volume of air, steam and fuel into an effluent, a thermal POX reactor, a first stage reforming segment, a post-premix chamber, and a second stage reforming segment. Further provided are a water/fuel vaporizer for supplying steam and fuel as a gas to the premix chamber and an airflow cavity disposed about the reactor for pre-heating air supplied to the premix chamber. The thermal POX segment operates during an initial start-up period for pre-heating the other components of the reactor. Once the other components achieve an operation temperature, the first and second stage reforming segments catalytically reform the effluent. The premix and post-premix chambers enable variance in the O/C and S/C ratios to be achieved as the effluent is reformed through the multiple stages.