Steam reforming method for fuel cells

摘要

Methods of reforming hydrocarbon fuel for supply at staff-up to a fuel cell stack comprising at least one solid oxide fuel cell, during transient load increases and during shutdown using a steam reformer (SR), alone initially run as partial oxidation reformer (CPOX) at start-up (or preferably with a separate CPOX) to heat cell and SR to operating temperature whereupon CPOX is shut down; the CPOX is started up to provide extra fuel rapidly for the fuel cell stack when the latter suffers increased load; and at shutdown the reforming is switched to CPOX to allow inert/blanket gas containing mostly nitrogen to be supplied to the cell stack whilst it cools enough to allow air entry. The CPOX may be supplied with water/steam to permit some autothermal reforming.