Patent ID: 7807129

Claim:
A method for generating hydrogen in a fuel processor, the fuel processor comprising a burner, a reformer and a dewar that at least partially contains the burner and reformer, the method comprising: generating heat in the burner; transferring heat from the burner to a dewar chamber via conductive heat transfer using a wall shared by the dewar chamber and the burner; passing a process gas or liquid through the dewar chamber; recycling the heat transferred from the burner back into the burner, wherein recycling comprises: heating the process gas or liquid in the dewar chamber using heat generated in the burner, wherein the process gas or liquid in the dewar chamber is heated using heat from the wall shared by the dewar chamber and the burner to form a pre-heated gas or liquid; and supplying the pre-heated gas or liquid to the burner by supplying the process gas or liquid to the burner directly from the dewar chamber after it has been heated in the dewar chamber; transferring heat generated in the burner to the reformer; and reforming a fuel source to produce hydrogen.