Patent ID: 8628887

Claim:
A method, comprising: providing an initial fuel mixture including air and hydrocarbon; at least partially oxidizing the initial fuel mixture with only a catalytic partial oxidation (CPOX) reformer to provide a reformed fuel mixture including molecular hydrogen and at least partially oxidized carbon in the form of carbon monoxide (CO); combining an amount of water with the reformed fuel mixture to reduce formation of elemental carbon from the at least partially oxidized carbon; wherein the amount of water is selected to be an amount of water vapor such that a reaction rate of a reaction: CO+H 2 →C+H 2 O is reduced by a factor of at least 2, thereby stabilizing the ratio of carbon monoxide to hydrogen in the reformed fuel mixture; after the combining of the water with the reformed fuel mixture, supplying at least a portion of the molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide from the reformed fuel mixture to a solid oxide fuel cell; and producing electric power with the solid oxide fuel cell.