Appeal No. 2005-1209
Application No. 10/078,086
The two independent claims 1 and 4 are reproduced below as
illustrative of appellants’ apparatus and method, respectively.
1. A polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell power
plant burner assembly which burner assembly is operable to
combust an anode exhaust gas emanating from a cell stack in
the PEM fuel cell assemblage, said burner assembly
comprising:
a) a catalytic burner;
b) an air/anode exhaust gas mixing station adjacent to and
opening into said catalytic burner; and
c) at least one heat exchanger disposed in heat exchange
relationship with said catalytic burner, said heat exchanger
being operable to convert water contained in said heat
exchanger to a two phase mixture of water and steam by using
heat generated by said catalytic burner from a mixture of
anode exhaust gas and air which is combusted in said
catalytic burner.
4. A method for producing steam for use in a steam
reformer in a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell
power plant, said method comprising:
a) the step of providing a catalytic burner which operates
at temperatures as high as about 1,700oF (927oC);
b) the step of combusting a fuel cell anode exhaust gas
stream in said catalytic burner;
c) the step of converting a stream of water to a mixture of
water and steam with heat produced by combustion of said
fuel cell anode exhaust gas stream; and
d) the step of feeding steam from said mixture to a
catalytic fuel reformer in the fuel cell power plant.
The sole prior art reference relied upon by the examiner is:
Kaufmann US 2002/0012893 A1 Jan. 31, 2002
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007