IMPROVED FUEL CELL SYSTEMS AND METHODS RELATED TO FUEL ELEMENTS Russian patent published in 2018 - IPC H01M8/06 H01M8/04 

FIELD: electrical engineering.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to the field of electrical engineering, namely a system based on an intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cell (IT-SOFC) containing: (i) at least one fuel cell stack comprising at least one intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cell and having an anode inlet, a cathode inlet, an anode off- gas outlet, a cathode off-gas outlet, and defining separate flow paths for flow of anode inlet gas, cathode inlet gas, anode off-gas and cathode off-gas; and (ii)a steam reformer for reforming a hydrocarbon fuel to a reformate and having a reformer inlet for anode inlet gas, a reformer outlet for exhausting anode inlet gas, and a reformer heat exchanger, wherein said reformer heat exchanger is a parallel-flow heat exchanger in fluid flow communication with (i) said at least one oxidant inlet and said at least one fuel cell stack cathode inlet, and (ii) said fuel source and said at least one fuel cell stack anode inlet and an anode input of said at least one fuel cell stack and is arranged for exchanging heat between said cathode inlet gas and said anode inlet gas. Method of operating this system is also proposed.

EFFECT: increase in the efficiency of IT-SOFC operation due to reduction of heat losses in the system is a technical result of the invention.

19 cl, 6 dwg, 1 tbl