| CPC H01M 8/241 (2013.01) [C01B 3/16 (2013.01); C01B 3/38 (2013.01); C01B 3/50 (2013.01); H01M 4/9041 (2013.01); H01M 8/04074 (2013.01); H01M 8/04097 (2013.01); H01M 8/04164 (2013.01); H01M 8/0668 (2013.01); H01M 8/0681 (2013.01); C01B 2203/066 (2013.01); H01M 8/04141 (2013.01); H01M 8/0618 (2013.01); Y02E 60/50 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |

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1. A method of operating a fuel cell system, comprising:
providing a fuel inlet stream to a fuel inlet of a fuel cell stack;
providing a fuel exhaust from a fuel exhaust outlet of the fuel cell stack to a splitter;
providing a first portion of the fuel exhaust from the splitter to an air preheater heat exchanger that preheats air provided to the fuel cell stack using the first portion of the fuel exhaust, the air preheater heat exchanger comprising a first water-gas shift (WGS) catalyst that is coated on a conduit of the air preheater heat exchanger that carries the first portion of the fuel exhaust;
providing the first portion of the fuel exhaust from an outlet of the air preheater heat exchanger to an anode inlet of an electrochemical pump separator comprising an electrolyte, a cathode, and an anode, and to a second WGS catalyst that is operatively connected to or integrated with the electrochemical pump separator;
providing a second portion of the fuel exhaust from the splitter to an anode tail gas oxidizer (ATO);
providing hydrogen output from a cathode outlet of the electrochemical pump separator to the fuel inlet stream; and
oxidizing separator exhaust output from an anode outlet of the electrochemical pump separator, the second portion of the fuel exhaust output from the splitter, and cathode exhaust output from the fuel cell stack in the ATO.
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