Largest Solid Oxide Fuel Cell to Date Passes Factory Test at Westinghouse
The 100-kilowatt unit is the first to use prototype cells designed for future use in commercial power plants. With its array of 1152 tubular cells, each 150-centimeters long by 2.2 centimeters in diameter, the new generator operated at nearly five times the power of the previous record, 27 kilowatts, also held by a Westinghouse tubular solid oxide fuel cell unit. The previous unit was fabricated with precommercial 50-centimeter-long cells.
The factory test – a checkout of the unit prior to its planned installation and operation in the Netherlands – is a key milestone in the U.S. Department of Energy's program to develop advanced fuel cells as future options for central and dispersed power plants. Because they generate electricity and heat from an electrochemical reaction, rather than relying on combustion, fuel cells are one of the cleanest and most efficient innovations being developed for 21st century power generation.
Their low emissions of greenhouse gases also may prove to be an especially important benefit for power producers in meeting future global climate change targets.
The Westinghouse unit passed its factory test running on pipeline natural gas. When installed at its intended site in Westervoort, a small town near Arnhem in the Netherlands, the unit is expected to operate at its rated 100 kilowatts at an electrical efficiency approaching 47 percent, but it will be capable of achieving an output of 150 kilowatts.
Representatives of the EDB/ELSAM, a consortium and Dutch and Danish utilities headquartered in the Netherlands, were on hand during the factory startup to observe the checkout tests. EDB is a group of five Dutch utilities and the utility association EnergyNed. ELSAM is an umbrella organization comprised of six Danish electric power generating companies. The consortium is funding the Westervoort installation with assistance from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
"This factory test is an important event because it confirms that our technology scale-up has been successful to this point," said Ray George, Westinghouse manager of solid oxide fuel cell power generation. "Our tubular 150-centimeter cells and other features of the 100-kilowatt design had previously never operated outside of a laboratory environment. We are counting on them for our first commercial products early in the coming century, and so we are looking forward to continuing good results at the Netherlands site during the next few years."
The unit is scheduled to be installed and operating at Westervoort by the end of the year and will operate for the next two years. It will supply power to the electrical grid and hot water to a district heating system operated by NUON, the local utility, providing a key test of the system's cogeneration capabilities. Future solid oxide fuel cells may be attractive for utility substation, small industrial cogeneration, and distributed generation applications.
In the United States, Westinghouse and the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy recently initiated a new phase of solid oxide fuel cell development aimed at producing the technology for megawatt-class power plants with fuel-to-electricity efficiencies, ranging from 60 percent to more than 70 percent. To reach these unprecedented efficiencies, Westinghouse will combine pressurized solid oxide fuel cell generating units with gas turbine-generators.