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Fuel cells are all the rage lately. Untold billions of
dollars have been and are being spent to developed them. They are an integral component of
the hydrogen economy. Hydrogen is the fuel which supplies the heat energy to the
fuel cells. The fuel cells then convert this heat energy to electric energy.
Many organizations such as newspapers
reporters and religious groups think that fuel cells produce energy by
themselves. They do not. And they are not part of the renewable chain unless the
hydrogen is produce by a renewable device such as wind or solar power.
Due to the dilute low energy production of renewable devices, it is highly
unlikely that they will ever be a significant contributor to the hydrogen supply
cycle.
As to where the hydrogen comes from to supply fuel
cells, go to my Web page under Hydrogen. Hydrogen
does not exist in nature in a free state. It is tied up in molecules such as
water. It takes more energy to break up water to get hydrogen than the hydrogen
gives back. But it is a way to transfer nuclear generated electrical
energy to produce hydrogen to energize fuel cells and or internal combustion
engines. I think that some day in the distant future
we will have to do this if we want to drive autos. Oil is a finite fuel.
Fuel cells are sought after because they can produce
electricity to power transportation vehicles and are totally nonpolluting. The
exhaust product is only water. And fuel cells are a little more efficient than
(I C)
internal combustion engines.
Fuel Cell development is again
underway for the umpteenth time. Don't hold your breath
New demand for distributed power generation and clean
energy are causing a renaissance in fuel cells. Government agencies and other
groups are funding a variety of efforts to make fuel cells more efficient and to
bring the cost per kilowatt to produce electricity down to levels that are on a
par with other generation technologies.
And while not directly related to the electric utility
industry, there are many government and automotive industry efforts under way to
improve fuel cells for use in hybrid and clean-fuel cars. Any developments or
breakthroughs from these projects potentially could be applied to fuel cells
used by power companies.
The main driver for the sudden new interest in fuel cells
is to meet the demands for clean, renewable energy. In October, the U.S.
Department of Energy awarded $100 million to fund 25 hydrogen fuel cell research
and development projects that have applications in both the electrical utilities
and automotive fields
But now the bad part.
Fuel cells are very expensive as of this writing. The cost
of a fuel ceil stack is about $5,000 per kWe or $3,748 per horse power. Thus a
150 horse power auto engine alone would cost $562,200 and a 250 horse powered
mini van engine or truck engine would cost $937,000. The cost of fuel
cells would have to come down a factor of 100 to be competitive. +
At a meeting I attended held by the California Energy
Commission on may 31. 2006, I learned that the target fuel cell cost is $75 per
kWe. Ballard Power Systems thought that they may some day reach that value if
they produce 500,000 fuel cells continually.
But of greater concern is the durability of fuel cells.
It was stated that fuel cells have a longer lifetime if they are operated at
constant power levels. For vehicle use this is not possible. Ballard thinks
that fuel cell stack life times are about 500 to 2,000 hours for this type of
duty cycle. This could mean a very expensive new stack replacement every 25,000
to 50,000 miles of use.
During a fuel cell auto demonstration by General Motors in
Europe, a 6,000 mile trip required a fuel stack replacement in 3,000 miles.
How do Fuel Cells Work?
There are many types of fuel cells, but just two
are of interest here. They are:
The PEM fuel cells are slated for automotive engines because
they operate at about room temperatures. The SOFC are expected to power central
station power plants. They operate at elevated temperatures of about 2,000 F and
as such would take too long and to much energy to get up to temperature to
start in automotive use.
If you want a compete description of how fuel cells
work go to the web site
http://science.howstuffworks.com/fuel-cell.htm
A fuel cell stack is made up of thousands of
individual fuels cells A 10 kWe fuel cell system I worked on
had 20,000 individual fuel cells. Each cell is made up of a sandwich of inner and
outer membranes with an electrolyte in between. Hydrogen flows on one side and
oxygen the other. As hydrogen atoms diffuse through the inner membrane a thin
layer of platinum acts as a catalyst and strips off an electron. The hydrogen
atom thus becomes a proton and goes through the electrolyte and then diffuses
through the outer membrane which also has a platinum layer catalyst.
Only a hydrogen ion will pass through the electrolyte.
The stripped off electron at the Anode travels through the eternal power circuit
and combines with the oxygen at the cathode membrane. When the
hydrogen and oxygen atoms combine at the cathode the heat of the reaction
energizes the fuel cell. Thus the fuel cell needs energy to operate. It is not a
perpetual motion device. Some people such as the some religious organizations as well as
some environmentalists think it is.
Did you pick up on the fact that the anode and cathode
membranes each have a layer of platinum as the catalyst to aid the
reaction? Platinum is one of the most expensive elements known. Even more
so than gold. Thus platinum contributes to the high capital cost of the fuel cell.
In fact there probably is not enough platinum in the world to use for all the
fuel cells that would be needed. Nothing seems to work as well as the catalyst other than
platinum. So the capital cost of fuel cells is at a stand still. It is also
expensive to have to make so many little fuel cells for a stack large enough for
an auto engine.
The San Jose Mercury News ran an article about a
company in Silicon Valley that has supposedly developed a real breakthrough in
the fuel cell membrane material. They think this will really bring down the cost
of fuel cells. Typical Newspaper article. The platinum catalysis is still needed
as well as thousands of fuel cells per stack. As usual I don't think we will
ever hear whether this breakthrough succeeds or not. A few years ago the
city of Santa Clara had a two megawatt fuel cell central station system
installed. This is a hugh power capacity for a fuel cell installation. The
Mercury News touted this as the beginning of a new energy source. The facility
operated for a few months, failed, and shutdown for good. The Mercury News never
reported what happened.
Fuel Cell Madness Misplaced.
Here is an outfit that likes fuels
cells. But entirely lacking is where does the hydrogen come from to fuel the
fuel cells? Moreover, they have no idea about the high capital cost of fuel
cells.
Within the U.S., Schoenwald likes FuelCell Energy
Inc. and Plug Power Inc., both of which use on-site fuel cells to produce energy
for manufacturing plants, hotels, prisons and universities.
The latest DOE report on fuel
cells.
Achievement Brightens Prospects for Environmentally Clean
Technology to Move into Mainstream Energy Markets Squeezing more watts of
electric power from smaller and smaller volumes of fuel cell materials is one of
the "holy grails" of fuel cell developers.
Combined with advances in mass production, such
improvements in a fuel cell’s "power density" could provide one of the much
needed technological leaps that could make this environmentally attractive
technology economically competitive with today’s traditional ways of generating
electricity. Now Delphi Corp., a partner in the U.S. Department of Energy’s
advanced fuel cell development program, has reported that it has exceeded the
power density level required to meet the government’s $400 per kilowatt cost
goal for fuel cells. Meeting the cost target is essential if fuel cells are to
expand beyond their current niche markets into widespread commercial use.
My comment: A goal of $400 per kWe
cost of fuel cells makes them competitive with current auto engines? A 100
horsepower engine would cost $30,000 for the engine along. And where does the
hydrogen fuel come from? Read on.
The distributed power generation systems are being
designed to use natural gas as the primary fuel (which would be steam reformed
to generate the hydrogen used by the fuel cell), while the automotive auxiliary
power unit incorporates a catalytic fuel rich partial oxidation system to
extract hydrogen from gasoline.
Hydrogen from natural gas is
ridiculous since natural gas supply is being stretched to supply the current
electrical and home heating loads. See my Web page on Natural Gas. And gasoline
for hydrogen? They refine oil to gasoline then split it up to extract the
hydrogen? Gasoline is about 86% carbon and 15% hydrogen. Looks to me like a bad
idea.
Fuel Cells 2000 Unveils Searchable Database of
Worldwide Stationary Installations
WASHINGTON, Nov 15, 2005 -- BUSINESS WIRE
The world is at your fingertips. The world of
stationary fuel cell installations, that is. Fuel Cells 2000 has developed the
first-of-its-kind searchable database of worldwide stationary fuel cell
installations. The database catalogues all installations around the globe -
past, present and planned. And like every resource available on
www.fuelcells.org, it is absolutely free.
The easy-to-use MySQL database allows users to search by a variety
of fields to find exactly what they are looking for. There are basic search
fields as well as an advanced search feature that allows multiple sorting by
manufacturer, city, state, country, fuel cell type, power range, fuel,
demonstration program, and by specific text. Users can find all PEM fuel cells
in their state or country, look up all natural gas-fueled units, search for
units under or over a certain power range - the options are endless.
"Fuel Cells 2000 has compiled all the information
available and created a simple, yet comprehensive database of stationary fuel
cell installations," says Jennifer Gangi, program director, Fuel Cells 2000.
"We hope users will be impressed with not only how many installations there
are worldwide, but at just how long some countries have been actively working
on demonstrating the technology." The database contains numerous listings from
various fuel cell demonstration programs conducted by the U.S. Department of
Defense, European Union and Japan from the 1990s as well as more recent
installations and planned sitings' coming up in the next few years.
The database can be found at http://www.fuelcells.org/info/databasefront.html.
Fuel Cells 2000 welcomes any additions or corrections, including technical
data and photographs, particularly with older or recently installed units.
Please email information to database@fuelcells.org.
Fuel cells generate electricity without combustion
by harnessing the energy created when hydrogen and oxygen are chemically
combined. Fuel Cells 2000 is an independent, nonprofit activity dedicated to
the commercialization of fuel cell technologies.
Financial Support for Fuel Cells
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 includes
the first tax incentive for fuel cell power plants at the Federal level. To
qualify, a fuel cell facility must be an integrated system comprised of a fuel
cell stack assembly and associated balance of plant components that convert a
fuel into electricity using electrochemical means, and which has an
electricity-only generation efficiency of greater than 30 percent and generates
at least 0.5 megawatts of electricity, and which is placed in service after
December 31, 2005, and before January 1, 2009. The taxpayer can claim the 1.5
cents-per-kilowatt-hour (indexed for inflation) credit for a five-year period
commencing on the date the facility is placed in service.
Epilogue
We can hope that the DOE
Integrated nuclear power plant Hydrogen/electric systems programs can be given the support
that is currently being given to development of fuel cells. Developing
fuel cells first is putting the cart before the horse. Without hydrogen, fuel
cells are worthless. Moreover, if fuel cells continue to be too expensive, I C engines
can be used to power transportation vehicles and can be ready within a year
from now at one hundredth of the current capital cost of fuel cells.
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