Patent ID: 8440358

Claim:
A method of operating a fuel cell system on a by-product gas, comprising the steps of: separating said by-product gas into a purified gas stream and a residual stream; feeding said purified gas stream to a fuel reformer configured to transform said purified gas stream to produce a reformate stream; feeding said residual gas stream to a combustor configured to burn said residual stream to provide heat energy; feeding said reformate stream to a solid oxide fuel cell stack producing an anode tail gas; wherein said by-product gas is produced by a process selected from a group consisting of bio-degradation of organic matter, pyrolysis of organic material, and gasification of fossil fuel; wherein said step of separating said by-product gas into a purified gas stream and a residual stream is preformed prior to feeding said purified gas stream and said residual stream to said fuel cell system; and wherein said purified gas stream comprises a higher concentration of fuel constituents and a lower concentration of contaminants than said residual gas stream.