Patent ID: 8568938

Claim:
A system, comprising: a fuel cell having a fuel cell inlet to receive preheated intake gas and a fuel cell outlet to release hot fuel cell exhaust; a heat exchanger (HX) having a HX cold-side inlet, a HX cold-side outlet, a HX hot-side inlet and a HX hot-side outlet; and a thermoelectric generator (TE) to generate electric energy based on a temperature differential between a TE cold-side and a TE hot-side, the TE comprising: a TE cold-side inlet to receive intake gases; a TE cold-side outlet coupled to the HX cold-side inlet; a TE hot-side inlet coupled to the fuel cell outlet to receive the hot fuel cell exhaust; a TE hot-side outlet coupled to the HX hot-side inlet to provide the hot fuel cell exhaust received at the TE hot-side inlet to the HX hot-side inlet; and a bypass control valve between the fuel cell outlet and the HX hot-side inlet, wherein the bypass control valve is adjustable to control an inlet temperature of the preheated intake gas received at the fuel cell inlet.