Patent ID: 7691502

Claim:
A fuel cell system comprising: an integration plane adapted to receive a plurality of differing types of technology modules, comprising, a bidirectional fluid bus; an electrical bus; a power management bus; a plurality of module bays, each module bay adapted to receive a said technology module, comprising: a bidirectional fluid interface coupled to the bidirectional fluid bus; an electrical interface coupled to the electrical bus; a power management interface coupled to the power management bus; wherein: the bidirectional fluid interface of each module bay has the same bidirectional fluid interface, the electrical interface of each module bay has the same electrical interface, and power management interface of each module bay has the same power management interface; and a resident processor, disposed on the integration plane and coupled to the electrical bus, to control at least one said technology module which is capable of being disposed in, and coupled to one or more interfaces of, one of the plurality of module bays.