Air Products selects FuelCell Energy for development of next generation hydrogen energy station

05-Aug-2005

Air Products announced that it has awarded a subcontract to FuelCell Energy, Inc. under a United States Department of Energy (DOE) Cooperative Agreement to evaluate, design and demonstrate a next-generation hydrogen Energy Station (HES). The HES will build upon FuelCell Energy's ultra-clean Direct FuelCell® (DFC®) power plants and Air Products' advanced gas separation technologies. The HES is directed toward co-producing hydrogen for vehicle fueling and electrical power from a single system. The HES effort will be directed toward a capability of using readily available fuels such as natural gas, propane and anaerobic digester gas from municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities.

On-site generation of hydrogen is a potential solution to challenges relating to development and construction of an infrastructure for fueling hydrogen vehicles. The HES will be based upon the use of high-temperature fuel cell technology to produce three products; hydrogen, heat and electricity, wherein unreacted hydrogen can be recovered from anode exhaust gas. The HES will be designed to optimize the output based on user demand. FuelCell Energy's sub-megawatt power plant will be integrated with an Air Products hydrogen purification system and related support sub-systems. The HES is designed to provide up to 250 kilowatts of electricity daily, sufficient to provide the base load power requirements of a 300-room suburban hotel, and enough hydrogen to fuel 20 cars per day.

Air Products recently completed a detailed evaluation on technical and economic aspects of this project under an initial phase of the effort. The system evaluation of co-producing hydrogen and electricity resulted in promising economics. "A single unit that potentially offers all three products is certainly attractive as a technology option for a number of new applications," said Greg Keenan, business development manager for Future Energy Solutions at Air Products. He added that power plants based upon this technology offer high efficiency, being able to recover up to 80-85 percent of the energy entering the system, and have low emissions.

FuelCell Energy has more than 40 power plant installations utilizing its base DFC technology throughout the world. Since it delivered its first commercially-available DFC power plant in January 2003, FuelCell Energy's units have generated more than 70 million kilowatt hours of electricity at customer sites.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/48106/air-products-selects-fuelcell-energy-for-development-of-next-generation-hydrogen-energy-station.html