A fuel cell device includes: a reformer that generates a reformed gas; a fuel cell; a combustor that combusts off-gas of the reformed gas and air for power generation, and generates a combustion exhaust gas; a first air heat exchanger that has a combustion exhaust gas path and a first air supply path, and that performs heat exchange between the combustion exhaust gas and the air for power generation; a fuel cell storage which stores the fuel cell; a second air heat exchanger that has a second air supply path that supplies the air for power generation to the fuel cell, and that performs heat exchange between the off-gas of the air for power generation and the air for power generation; and a housing that stores members. The first air supply path and the second air supply path are disposed to cover whole members stored in the housing.

A natural gas fueling system supplies methane gas to an engine and includes a filter assembly. The filter assembly includes a gas inlet configured to receive inlet gas and a methane permeable filter configured to separate methane gas and first contaminant gases from the inlet gas. The natural gas fueling system also includes a reformer apparatus configured to convert the first contaminant gases into a reformed gas stream including methane gas. The reformed gas is supplied to the gas inlet and is recirculated through the filter assembly to extract the methane gas from the reformed gas stream.

A power generation system includes: a combustor operative to combust a fuel; a power generator operative to utilize energy obtained from the combustor when generating electric power; a fuel supplier operative to supply the fuel to the combustor; an air supplier operative to supply combustion air to the combustor; a discharged gas passage through which a discharged gas from the combustor flows; a CO detector operative to detect CO in the discharged gas; a temperature detector operative to detect a temperature of the discharged gas; and control circuitry operative to, when the discharged gas is flowing through the discharged gas passage, perform at least one of an operation of detecting a structural abnormality of the discharged gas passage based on a difference between detected temperatures of the temperature detector relative to a difference between heated amounts of the discharged gas heated by a heater and an operation of detecting the structural abnormality of the discharged gas passage based on the difference between the detected temperatures of the temperature detector relative to a difference between outputs of at least one of the fuel supplier and the air supplier.

A fuel cell module includes a first area where an exhaust gas combustor and a start-up combustor are provided, a second area where a reformer and a heat exchanger are provided, a third area where an evaporator is provided, and a condensed water recovery mechanism for recovering condensed water produced by condensation of water vapor contained in the combustion gas by allowing the condensed water to flow from the third area to the second area and then flow from the second area to the first area.

A SOFC system having a fuel reformer for reforming a gaseous hydrocarbon stream and steam into a hydrogen rich gas, a solid oxide fuel cell stack including an anode and a cathode for electrochemically reacting the hydrogen rich gas and a cathode air stream to produce electricity, an anode exhaust stream and a cathode depleted air stream. The anode exhaust stream and the cathode depleted air stream are kept separate, a burner for combusting a mixture of the anode exhaust stream and a fresh air stream to complete combustion and produce heat for the reformer control unit and a blower are also provided. The control unit controlling the blower for controlling the mass flow rate of the fresh air stream to provide heat to the reformer to reform the gaseous hydrocarbon stream and to produce a burner exhaust stream.

An object of the present invention is to provide a fuel cell system for preventing carbon deposition in a fuel cell stack to be supplied with reformed gas. A fuel cell system 10A of the present invention includes a partial oxidation reformer 22 for partially oxidizing raw fuel to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen, a shift reactor 23 for shift reacting the carbon monoxide with steam to produce carbon dioxide and hydrogen, a fuel cell stack 20 for generating electric power by electrochemical reaction between oxidant gas and the hydrogen which is produced in at least one of the partial oxidation reformer 22 and the shift reactor 23, and an exhaust gas recirculation pipe P6 for supplying steam contained in exhaust gas of the fuel cell stack 20 to the shift reactor 23.

A fuel cell system comprising: a fuel cell configured to be supplied with a fuel and air to generate an electric power; a combustor configured to combust an off-gas discharged from the fuel cell to produce a combustion discharged gas; a fuel heating part configured to heat the fuel to be supplied to the fuel cell by the combustion discharged gas; an air heating part configured to heat the air to be supplied to the fuel cell by the combustion discharged gas; an anode-side distribution passage configured to distribute the combustion discharged gas to the fuel heating part; a cathode-side distribution passage configured to distribute the combustion discharged gas to the air heating part; and a discharged gas distribution ratio adjustment part configured to adjust a discharged gas distribution ratio, the discharged gas distribution ratio being a ratio of an anode-side combustion discharged gas flow rate to a cathode-side combustion discharged gas flow rate, the anode-side combustion discharged gas flow rate being a flow rate of the combustion discharged gas that flows in the anode-side distribution passage, the cathode-side combustion discharged gas flow rate being a flow rate of the combustion discharged gas that flows in the cathode-side distribution passage, wherein the discharged gas distribution ratio adjustment part is configured to reduce the discharged gas distribution ratio according to an increase in a supply air flow rate as a flow rate of the air to be supplied to the fuel cell.

A fuel cell power generation module includes a fuel cell stack body combined with a reformer, a burner, and a plate-type evaporator that are sequentially top-down stacked and assembled into a detachable power generation module, a gas-water separator to recycle mixed fuel that is not completely reacted with the fuel cell stack body, and a part of the recycled fuel is introduced into the burner for burning, and the burner thermal thus produced is used for heating the fuel cell stack body and the plate-type evaporator through thermal radiation and heat conduction, meanwhile, hot air produced by the burner can be used for heating air that enters the fuel cell stack body, and the plate-type evaporator converts the water into steam that feeds into the fuel cell stack body with fuel for reaction.

Various hot box fuel cell system components are provided, such as heat exchangers, steam generator and other components.

To provide a fuel cell device capable of extending the years of service life of a reformer by suppressing thermal runaways. The present invention is a solid oxide fuel cell device, including a fuel cell module having fuel cell units; a reformer disposed above the fuel cell units, for producing hydrogen by a partial oxidation reforming reaction and a steam reforming reaction; a vaporizing chamber disposed adjacent to the reformer; a combustion chamber for heating the vaporization chamber; a water supply device; an electrical generation oxidant gas supply device; and a controller for raising the fuel cell units to a temperature at which electrical generation is possible; whereby over the entire period of the startup step, the reforming oxidant gas supply device and water supply device are controlled so that partial oxidation reforming reactions do not occur independently in the reformer.