Patent ID: 8663851

Claim:
A method of operating a fuel cell system, the method comprising the acts of: providing a fuel cell stack including a plurality of solid oxide fuel cells; at least partially reforming an anode feed in an integrated heat exchanger/reformer; supplying the at least partially reformed anode feed to an anode side of the fuel cell stack; removing offgas from the anode side of the fuel cell stack along an offgas flow path; combining a first portion of offgas from the anode side of the fuel cell stack with the anode feed to recycle the offgas back to the fuel cell stack; supplying a second portion of offgas from the anode side of the fuel cell stack to an anode tailgas oxidizer; transferring heat from the oxidized offgas from the anode tailgas oxidizer to the anode feed in the integrated heat exchanger/reformer; and adjusting relative volumes of the anode feed reformed by the integrated heat exchanger/reformer and directly internally at the anode side of the stack by adjusting the heat content of the oxidized offgas.