Gasoline cells usually are not some novel new expertise. In reality, most historical past books credit score the invention of the gasoline cell to Welsh chemist and physicist William Grove, who, within the late 1830s and early 1840s, carried out experiments proving that electrical present might be produced from an electrochemical response between hydrogen and oxygen over a platinum catalyst.
But, gasoline cells by no means actually took off as a mainstream supply of energy. Why is that? “I think the real reason is, historically, we’ve been comfortable with less-clean, lower-efficient but less-expensive technologies, because we haven’t been as focused on air quality and on decarbonization as we currently are,” Tony Leo, govt vp and Chief Know-how Officer with FuelCell Energymentioned as a visitor on The POWER Podcast.
Nevertheless, as folks have develop into extra targeted on air high quality and local weather change, Leo advised gasoline cells at the moment are poised to take off. “That’s why you’re seeing such an acceleration in the deployment of fuel cells and that’s why you’re hearing more and more about them these days,” he mentioned.
How a Gasoline Cell Works
A gasoline cell is a tool that makes electrical energy from gasoline and air. As an alternative of burning the gasoline to make warmth to drive a mechanical generator, gasoline cells react the gasoline and air electrochemically, with out combustion. The electrochemical method avoids pollution which might be created by excessive flame temperatures, and it’s a extra direct and environment friendly method to make energy from a gasoline.
Reacting gasoline and air electrochemically entails delivering gasoline to a set of destructive electrodes (known as anodes) and delivering air to a set of optimistic electrodes (known as cathodes). The electrochemical response of gasoline produces electrons. The electrochemical response of oxygen in air consumes electrons. Connecting the 2 produces the present of usable electrical energy.
Gasoline cells are configured in stacks of particular person cells linked in a collection. FuelCell Power’s carbonate stacks have as much as 400 cells per stack and produce between 250 kW and 400 kW of energy. FuelCell Power’s normal MW-scale module accommodates 4 stacks, nets about 1.4 MW of energy, and might make electrical energy for websites equivalent to universities, hospitals, and information facilities. The modular design of gasoline cell vegetation permits them to scale as much as a particular website’s vitality wants.
Advantages of Gasoline Cells
“One big advantage is they’re quiet,” mentioned Leo. “Since they don’t have a big spinning machine and this big spinning generator, they’re quiet compared to traditional power generation, so you can site them in population centers. We have a 15-MW fuel cell right in the middle of downtown Bridgeport, Connecticut, for example, and that just makes a really good neighbor.” The dearth of dangerous emissions can be a profit.
One other benefit is that whereas gasoline cells are making electrical energy, they’re additionally making warmth that can be utilized to provide scorching water or steam, or to drive chilling operations. “That further enhances the sustainability because you get to avoid burning fuel in a boiler, for example, if you can use the heat coming off the fuel cell,” mentioned Leo.
Moreover, gasoline cells don’t require plenty of upkeep or a big operations employees. “They’re unmanned—we monitor them remotely—and so, they take care of themselves and just generate value,” Leo defined.
Massive and Modern Tasks Across the World
Simply exterior Seoul, South Korea, there’s a fuel cell park that produces 59 MW of power. “We originally manufactured that system for a distribution partner that we had—POSCO. We have just now taken over the service agreement for that project, so we’ll be making stacks to keep that project going for many years to come,” mentioned Leo. “That’s the biggest project in the world—that’s also producing heat in addition to power that goes into a district heating system.”
One other attention-grabbing challenge started operation in Southern California not too long ago. FuelCell Power and Toyota Motor North America Inc. celebrated the grand opening of the first-of-its-kind “Tri-gen” system on the Port of Lengthy Seashore on Might 2. Tri-gen makes use of biogas to provide renewable electrical energy, renewable hydrogen, and usable water. It was constructed to help the car processing and distribution heart for Toyota Logistics Companies (TLS) at Lengthy Seashore (Determine 1), Toyota’s largest North American car processing facility, which receives roughly 200,000 new Toyota and Lexus automobiles yearly.
“We have a system that in addition to producing electricity, also produces hydrogen that they use to fuel those vehicles and it also produces water they use to wash cars,” Leo defined. “So, that’s an example of a new application of fuel cell technology that’s very different.” TLS Lengthy Seashore is Toyota’s first port car processing facility powered by 100% onsite generated renewable electrical energy.
Scale-Up May Deliver Prices Down
What Leo mentioned is presently holding gasoline cells again is the price. “Fuel cell technology tends to be more expensive at this point than the incumbent legacy technologies, just because they’re new and because they haven’t yet achieved the volume that these legacy technologies have,” he mentioned. “I think that will change over time as there’s more and more deployment, and that deployment is now being driven by decarbonization.”
In the meantime, there are some authorities incentives out there too. “Some of them are very similar to the wind and solar (incentives),” Leo mentioned. “For example, there’s a federal investment tax credit, where a person installing a fuel cell can take a percentage of the capital costs and apply that as a tax credit.”
In California, there are extra incentives across the state’s Low Carbon Gasoline Normal. There are additionally capital value incentives in Connecticut, the place a renewable vitality credit score mechanism helps gasoline cells. “That’s what makes our Bridgeport 15-MW system economical, for example,” mentioned Leo. He famous there’s an analogous mechanism in South Korea.
Leo, a 40-year veteran of the gasoline cell business, has seen his share of ups and downs through the years, however he stays very optimistic concerning the future. “I feel really strongly that we are, in fact, globally and as a nation, one way or the other, going to go through an energy transition to decarbonize the grid and to clean up the air,” he mentioned. “As the demand goes up for onsite power generation in areas like data centers, we think that people are going to look to a more sustainable way to meet that need, and we think that’s an opportunity for us.”
To listen to the total interview with Leo, which accommodates extra about the advantages of gasoline cells, carbon seize expertise, hydrogen, FuelCell Power’s competitors, distributed vitality techniques, the corporate’s manufacturing services, and way more, hearken to The POWER Podcast. Click on on the SoundCloud participant beneath to pay attention in your browser now or use the next hyperlinks to achieve the present web page in your favourite podcast platform:
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—Aaron Larson is POWER’s govt editor (@AaronL_Power, @POWERmagazine).
