Patent ID: 9246180
Filing Date: 2016-01-26
CPC Classification: H01L,H01M,Y02E

Claim Text:
1. A fuel cell module comprising: a fuel cell stack for generating electricity by electrochemical reactions of a fuel gas and an oxygen-containing gas; a reformer for reforming a mixed gas of water vapor and a raw fuel chiefly containing hydrocarbon to produce the fuel gas, and supplying the fuel gas to the fuel cell stack; an evaporator for evaporating water, and supplying water vapor to the reformer; a heat exchanger for raising a temperature of the oxygen-containing gas by heat exchange with a combustion gas, and supplying the oxygen-containing gas to the fuel cell stack; an exhaust gas combustor for combusting the fuel gas discharged from the fuel cell stack as a fuel exhaust gas and the oxygen-containing gas discharged from the fuel cell stack as an oxygen-containing exhaust gas to produce a first portion of the combustion gas; and a start-up combustor for combusting the raw fuel and the oxygen-containing gas to produce a second portion of the combustion gas, wherein the fuel cell module includes a thermoelectric converter for performing thermoelectric conversion based on a temperature difference between the combustion gas and the oxygen-containing gas; further comprising a combustion gas channel for supplying the combustion gas successively to the heat exchanger, the reformer, and the evaporator; and an oxygen-containing gas channel for supplying the oxygen-containing gas from the heat exchanger to the fuel cell stack, wherein the thermoelectric converter is provided downstream of the evaporator in the combustion gas channel, and upstream of the heat exchanger in the oxygen-containing gas channel.