Patent ID: 7645307

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a fuel processor reactor, the reactor including a water gas shift reaction section; a temperature sensor disposed within the reaction section; a coolant flow line through the reaction section; an automated control system capable of: determining a first component for a setting adjustment for a coolant flow rate through the coolant flow line from the measured temperature and a setpoint for the measured temperature wherein, in determining the first component, the automated control system is capable of: determining the difference between the setpoint and the measured temperature; and applying the difference to a proportional-integral-derivative controller to determine the first component from the difference; determining a second component for the setting adjustment from a hydrogen production rate for the fuel processor wherein, in determining the second component, the automated control system is capable of: modeling the operation of the fuel processor in a plurality of operational scenarios; tabulating the model results in a manner indexable by the hydrogen production rate; and retrieving the second component from the tabulated results; and determining the setting adjustment from both the first component and the second component.