Patent ID: 11909082
Assignee: FUELCELL ENERGY, INC
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  Y | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A fuel cell system comprising:
a fuel cell stack comprising a plurality of fuel cells, each of the plurality of fuel cells comprising a fuel electrode and an air electrode;
a fuel receiving unit fluidly coupled to the fuel cell stack, the fuel receiving unit configured to receive a hydrocarbon fuel from a fuel supply and provide the hydrocarbon fuel to the fuel electrodes of the fuel cell stack; and
a first fluid pathway configured to receive fuel exhaust from the fuel electrodes of the fuel cell stack;
a second fluid pathway configured to receive a first portion of the fuel exhaust from the first fluid pathway;
a third fluid pathway configured to receive a second portion of the fuel exhaust from the first fluid pathway;
a carbon processing unit configured to receive the first portion of the fuel exhaust from the second fluid pathway, and
to remove a first portion of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the first portion of the fuel exhaust, output the first portion of CO2 in a first stream, and output a remainder of the first portion of the fuel exhaust containing a second portion of CO2 and hydrogen; and
an air combination unit configured to receive the second portion of the fuel exhaust from the third fluid pathway, to combine the second portion of the fuel exhaust with air, and provide a mixture of the second portion of the fuel exhaust and the air to the air electrodes of the fuel cell stack.