A method for reducing liquid water droplets in an anode inlet to a fuel cell stack and a correspondingly designed fuel cell system

摘要

A fuel cell system (50) comprising: a fuel cell stack (12); an anode input line (14); a hydrogen source (16) supplying fresh hydrogen gas to the anode input line (14); an anode recycle line (22) for recirculating anode exhaust gas from the stack (12) to the anode input line (14); an anode heat exchanger (52) receiving the recirculated anode exhaust gas and the fresh hydrogen gas from the source (16) to heat the recirculated anode exhaust gas and the fresh hydrogen gas; a cooling fluid conduit (30, 32) directing a cooling fluid through the stack (12), wherein heated cooling fluid exits the stack (12) and cooled cooling fluid enters the stack (12) from the cooling fluid conduit (30, 32); Cooling fluid conduit (32) directing at least a portion of the heated cooling fluid from the stack to the anode heat exchanger (52) to heat the recirculated anode exhaust gas and the fresh hydrogen gas; and an insulating heat exchanger (36) receiving the portion of the cooling fluid after the anode heat exchanger (52) to cool the cooling fluid.