Apr 25 2007
FuelCell Energy, Inc., a leading manufacturer of secure ultra-clean power plants using a variety of fuels for commercial and industrial customers, and Versa Power Systems, Inc., a leading developer of solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC), today announced the successful completion of performance and endurance tests on a prototype 3 to 10 kilowatt (kW) fuel cell commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) six months ahead of schedule.
FuelCell Energy and Versa Power recently were selected by the agency through a competitive process to participate in a new DOE Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) program to apply this SOFC technology in developing large-scale, multi-megawatt power plant systems that run efficiently on clean coal.
The high power-density prototype was designed by FuelCell Energy and its SOFC technology partner, Versa Power Systems, Inc., under funding from SECA. The SECA program was established to promote the development of environmentally friendly, cost competitive SOFCs for a variety of energy needs -- including clean, coal-fueled large central power generation stations. The DOE anticipates commissioning multi-MW, proof-of-concept, coal-based SOFC power plant systems in the 2012 time frame.
"We are very pleased at the progress FuelCell Energy and Versa Power are making," said Wayne Surdoval, Fuel Cells Technology Manager for DOE. "The next step is to apply the technology for commercial grade, coal-fueled central generation applications."
Although the U.S. has 25 percent of the world's coal reserves, and coal currently supplies more than half the electricity in the U.S., coal is also responsible for 83 percent of CO2 emissions -- a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. SECA fuel cells will substantially contribute to higher power plant efficiency, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions to less than 10 percent of current power plant levels.
"Our results enabled the DOE to end the Phase I program early and accelerate our efforts to develop and deliver the SECA coal-based program multi-megawatt integrated gasification fuel cell (IGFC) system," said Christopher R. Bentley, FuelCell Energy's executive vice president of government research and development operations. "This project was established to prove that efficient and environmentally friendly fuel cell technology is the best way to reduce emissions from future central generation power plants, and is a critical part of the solution to the reduction of global warming."
Two of the main major objectives of the Phase I development effort were to demonstrate the performance of a 3 to 10 kW prototype SOFC system and to develop factory cost estimates showing such systems could be manufactured on a cost-effective basis.
Based on tests conducted by Versa Power and FuelCell Energy over a 2,100-hour operational period, the prototype successfully met all DOE-specified targets. These areas included power output, system efficiency, system availability and overall system endurance. System cost calculations also met the DOE's target.
Subsequently, the prototype was shipped to the DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, WV for another 1,600 hours of testing. Both the initial system performance tests and the factory cost estimate were audited and confirmed by independent third party consultants approved by the DOE.
FuelCell Energy and Versa Power form one of only three industrial teams competitively chosen by DOE to develop this technology for large-scale, coal-fueled applications. GE Hybrid Power Generation Systems and Siemens Power Generation, Inc. are the other two DOE-selected industrial teams. The DOE tapped FuelCell Energy, in part, for its experience in coal gas systems, its existing work with fuel cell hybrid power plants, and its record in building megawatt-class systems.