Systems and methods are provided for maintaining and/or improving operating lifetime for molten carbonate fuel cells that contain reforming catalyst in the anode when processing cathode input flows that contain sulfur oxides. The systems and methods can include a serial arrangement of molten carbonate fuel cells, where a first fuel cell includes a reduced or minimized amount of reforming catalyst in the anode. A second molten carbonate fuel cell can include reforming catalyst in the anode.

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack, a fuel inlet conduit configured to provide a fuel to a fuel inlet of the fuel cell stack, an electrochemical pump separator containing an electrolyte, a cathode, and a carbon monoxide tolerant anode, a fuel exhaust conduit that operatively connects a fuel exhaust outlet of the fuel cell stack to an anode inlet of the electrochemical pump separator, and a product conduit which operatively connects a cathode outlet of the electrochemical pump separator to the fuel inlet conduit.

A railway vehicle includes a car body having a shell frame surrounding an internal area suitable for accommodating passengers, and a power generator connected to an external side of the car body and including an outlet for discharging out a liquid produced during generation of electricity. A hydraulic system is in fluid communication with the outlet and receives at least part of the liquid produced during generation of electricity. The hydraulic system includes a first end portion connected to the outlet, a second end portion, spaced apart from the first end portion, for draining out from the hydraulic system the received liquid, and a third intermediate portion which is interconnected between the first and second end portions and is placed, at least partially, in the internal area of the car body, which is adapted to be heated before receiving passengers.

A fuel cell system includes a fuel cell stack, a fuel gas supply path, an injector, an ejector, a circulation path, a pressure difference detection unit that detects a pressure difference between an ejector inlet port pressure and an ejector outlet port pressure, and a control device. The control device calculates a required circulation flow rate that is required for a fuel off gas supplied from the fuel cell stack to the ejector, based on a required load for the fuel cell stack, calculates an estimated circulation flow rate that is an estimated flow rate of the fuel off gas supplied from the fuel cell stack to the ejector, based on the required load and the pressure difference, and increases the flow rate of a fuel gas supplied from the injector to the fuel cell stack when the estimated circulation flow rate is lower than the required circulation flow rate.

A system for humidifying a vehicle that is a fuel cell electric vehicle includes a fuel cell stack for producing electrical energy through an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen, a water supply tank for storing water generated during electricity generation in the fuel cell stack, a HVAC apparatus for humidifying an interior of the vehicle using the water supplied from the water supply tank, a heater for generating steam by heating the water supplied from the water supply tank, and supplying the steam to the HVAC apparatus, and a controller that determines an operation mode of the system based on at least one of a vehicle state, a HVAC apparatus state, or an indoor temperature of the vehicle, and controls at least one of the HVAC apparatus or the heater based on the determined operation mode to control indoor humidification of the vehicle.

The invention relates to an anode sub-system (1) for a fuel cell system with at least one fuel cell (2), comprising a supply path (3) for supplying the fuel cell (2) with hydrogen and comprising a recirculation path (4) for recirculating a gas mixture which exits the fuel cell (2) and contains water and hydrogen, wherein a water separator (5) is arranged in the recirculation path (4), and the recirculation path (4) is connected to the supply path (3) downstream of the water separator (5) via a jet pump (7). According to the invention, the supply path (3) is connected to the water separator (5) at the deepest point of the supply path via a connection line (9). The invention additionally relates to a fuel cell system comprising such an anode sub-system (1).

A humidifier for humidifying a dry cathode supply air via a humid cathode exhaust air in a fuel cell system, may include a housing, a membrane stack, and/or a sealing arrangement. The membrane stack may include a plurality of membranes, two first side surfaces, two second side surfaces, and/or two third side surfaces. The plurality of membranes may be stacked on one another transversely to a longitudinal direction of the membrane stack. The first side surfaces may be arranged opposite one another. The second side surfaces may be arranged opposite one another. The third side surfaces may be arranged opposite one another. The sealing arrangement may include two sealing frames, each of the sealing frames is assigned to one of the respective first side surfaces. Each of the sealing frames may have a frame-shaped contact area and a retaining edge protruding from the contact area.

A membrane humidifier has a housing and a membrane stack. The membrane stack includes two first stack sides aligned parallel to the assembly direction. The membrane humidifier has a sealing device with two first sealing frames, each with an inner sealing surface and an outer sealing surface. The housing has two first housing sealing surfaces. The first sealing frames are in sealing contact with the inner sealing surfaces on the first stack sides. The first sealing frames are in contact with the outer sealing surfaces on the first housing sealing surfaces. The outer sealing surfaces of the first sealing frames and the first housing sealing surfaces of the housing are each aligned at a mounting angle to the first stack sides and to the mounting direction that is not zero. In addition, an arrangement is provided which includes the membrane humidifier and the sealing device for the membrane humidifier.

A method for manufacturing a heat exchanger includes: providing a porous material that has a porosity of about 30% to about 80%; forming an oxide layer on a surface of the porous material by heat treating the porous material at a temperature in a range of 600° C. to 900° C. for a time period in a range of 8 hours to 12 hours in air; and integrating the porous material into a cold side flow passage of the heat exchanger.

A membrane humidifier for a fuel cell, of the present invention, comprises: a middle case in which a plurality of hollow fiber membranes are accommodated; a cap case coupled to the middle case; potting parts formed at the ends of the plurality of hollow fiber membranes; an assembly member disposed between the cap case and the end of the middle case so as to provide air tight coupling therebetween; and a protrusion part extending toward the edges of the potting parts from the inside of the cap case so as to provide air tight coupling between the cap case and the potting parts.