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:
Dec. 28, 2010
Filed:
Sep. 21, 2005
Sean M. Kelly, Pittsford, NY (US);
Bernhard Fischer, Rochester, NY (US);
Sean M. Kelly, Pittsford, NY (US);
Bernhard Fischer, Rochester, NY (US);
Delphi Technologies, Inc., Troy, MI (US);
Abstract
In an SOFC stack system, wherein a CPOx reformer supplies reformate to the stack, a portion of the anode tail gas is recycled directly into the anode inlet of the stack, such that the fuel reaching the anodes is a mixture of fresh reformate and recycled anode tail gas and is present at a sufficiently high temperature that endothermic reforming of residual hydrocarbons from the CPOx reformer occurs within the stack. Preferably, an amount of secondary non-reformed fuel is also added to optimize the fuel mixture presented for internal reforming. The anode tail gas is hot, at the stack temperature of 750-800° C., which allows for the mixture of anode tail gas and secondary fuel to be mixed and reacted in a clean-up catalyst to react higher hydrocarbons in the secondary fuel, without additional oxygen, prior to being mixed with reformate and sent to the stack.