Patent ID: 7828863

Claim:
Method for reforming a hydrocarbon fuel for generating hydrocarbon, comprising: a start-up phase comprising establishing an autothermal fuel reforming process in a fuel reformer comprising an oxidation catalyst, which start-up phase comprises, in sequence, the following processes: an initial phase of feeding hydrocarbon fuel and air into the fuel reformer as a lean mixture of the air-to-fuel ratio such that the fuel reformer is catalytically started and heated by an exothermic reaction; a first stage of feeding hydrocarbon fuel and air into the fuel reformer as a fat mixture for initiating an exothermic catalytic partial oxidation process for reforming the hydrocarbon fuel to hydrogen, a second stage for catalytically converting the hydrogen generated in the first stage into water steam by a catalytic combustion reactor; a third stage for initiating an endothermic catalytic steam reforming process in the fuel reformer by feeding back into the fuel reformer the water steam which is generated in the second stage, so that by the combination of the exothermic and the endothermic processes the autothermal fuel reforming process is created; and a steady state operation phase in which the hydrogen which is generated by the ATR process is fed to a fuel cell for operating the same.