Patent ID: 8158289

Claim:
A method of operating a fuel cell system, comprising: providing a flow of ambient air to a cathode chamber of a PEM fuel cell; reacting a portion of the air in the fuel cell to produce electricity; exhausting a remaining portion of the air from the fuel cell directly to a reactor assembly, wherein the remaining portion of air contains water vapor, wherein the fuel cell abuts the reactor assembly; mixing at least a portion of the exhausted air with a hydrocarbon gas to form a feed mixture; processing the feed mixture in the reactor assembly to generate a reformate flow; routing the reformate flow from the reactor assembly to an anode chamber of the fuel cell; regulating the remaining portion of the air from the fuel cell to cause the remaining portion of the air to contain a sufficient water content to provide a ratio of the molar flow of water in the remaining portion to the carbon molar flow of fuel into the reactor over 2.0; and maintaining an operating temperature of the fuel cell in the range 150-180° C.