Patent ID: 6794072
Filing Date: 2004-09-21
Classification: H01M,Y02E

Abstract:
A fuel cell system comprising:a vaporizer for vaporizing liquid unreformed fuel in order to produce an unreformed fuel gas; a reformer which reforms the unreformed fuel gas in order to produce a reformate fuel gas; a fuel cell stack which generates power using the reformate fuel gas; a combustor which produces energy by combusting combustible components in a discharge gas supplied to the combustor from the fuel cell stack, the combustor applying energy for producing the unreformed fuel gas to the vaporizer; and a programmable controller which functions to: control at least one of temperatures of the vaporizer and the combustor to their respective permitted temperature ranges, by varying the flow rate of the discharge gas to the combustor; wherein the controller sets a target variation over time for the flow rate, predicts the pressure of the reformate fuel gas based on the target variation over time for the flow rate, and changes the target variation over time for the flow rate when the predicted pressure for the reformate fuel gas deviates from a permitted pressure range.