HydroGen Fuel Cells Large Scale Stationary Fuel Cell ...

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1 Large Scale Stationary Fuel Cell Commercialization Using Existing Hydrogen Infrastructure Louisiana Energy Summit Andrew Thomas Case Western Reserve University HydroGen Fuel Cells

Transcript of HydroGen Fuel Cells Large Scale Stationary Fuel Cell ...

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Large Scale Stationary Fuel Cell Commercialization Using Existing

Hydrogen Infrastructure

Louisiana Energy SummitAndrew Thomas

Case Western Reserve University

HydroGenFuel Cells

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Fuel cells generate high quality, efficient, reliable, emission-free power from hydrogen

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Fuel cells: Status of commercialization

Small [1 kW] systems may go fast

Initial prototype demonstration

SOFC [planar]

100 kW system successfully tested

Advanced prototypesSOFC [tubular]

Complicated systems have long learning curve

Prototype commercial demonstrations

MCFC

Mainly transportation applications

Semi-commercial prototypes in demonstration

PEM / SPFC

Selected applications onlyCommercialAFC

Over 350 systems delivered

Market entryPAFC

RemarkStatusType

"We are going to take advantage of the downturn in the fuel cell market and spend more time qualifying key process

technologies for the first commercialization…

…We are going to remain in the pre-commercialization phase through March 2006," Ms. Forbrick said. "We have not made a decision about when

we're moving into the building."

Nov 8-14, 2002

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What is the problem with PAFC?!

• The only fully commercial fuel cell for large stationary applications– Over 300 systems delivered (UTC, Fuji)– Excellent product has established performance, emissions benefits of fuel

cells• But they cost too much!

– Small packaged systems (~100kW order magnitude) suffer from diseconomies of scale for the hydrogen plant

• UTC got out of the business (2000)…• …or so everyone thought (2004)…• …while Fuji has quietly been improving their technology 75,000 hour

operating life achieved• Both UTC and Fuji are trying to engineer the capital and life cycle costs

out of their system, while staying focused on commercial cogeneration markets

• PAFC is the proven technology for stationary applications: The only challenge remaining is to get the cost down!

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Cost reduction: THE issue

Fuel cell system cost depends on:• Simplicity of fuel cell technology

• Fuel processing method• Size of system

Incumbent fuel cell manufacturers have:Complex fuel cellsMiniaturized, integrated fuel processingSmall systems <1MW

Another approach (HydroGen, LLC):Simple, robust Westinghouse 400kW stack technology Unbundled fuel processing, using mature hydrogen plant technology or existing H2 infrastructureLarge systems 3-10MW

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HydroGen unbundled approach

Byproduct hydrogen

Source

PhosphoricAcid

Fuel Cells(PAFCs)

DC/ ACinverterHydrogen gas

DCpower

ACpower

Heat

Water

HydroGenFuel Cells

Existing H2 infrastructure

With standard multi-MW H2 plant

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Economies of scale and serial production of standard hydrogen plant technology

$/kW cost for H2 plants in PAFC systems

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

1 2 3 4 5 6 20 100

Plant number constructed

Cos

t in

$/kW

e - e

quiv

alen

t

2 MW5 MW10 MW

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There is a large, existing industrial hydrogen infrastructure

TEXASLOUISIANA

HYDROGEN

AIR SEPARATION PLANTS

NITROGEN OXYGEN

INDUSTRIAL AREA

GALVESTON BAY

GULF OF MEXICO

BAYTOWN

MONT BELVIEU

CHANNELVIEW

LAPORTE

HOUSTON

GALVESTON

TEXAS CITY

PORTARTHUR

PASADENADEER PARK

BAYPORT

SULPHUR

LAKECHARLES

NEDERLAND

SABINELAKE

NEW ORLEANS

GEISMAR

BATON ROUGE

245 miles of pipeline serving50 major customers

BEAUMONT

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Value proposition of the unbundled approach in multi-MW systems

• Cost: Economies-of-scale of mature hydrogen plant technology, and large niche applications with no fuel processing– Capital cost reductions– Fuel can be low opportunity cost in certain locations– Multi-MW approach also gets you on fast path to volume

production of the fuel cell stacks!

• Reliability and low technical risk: A 10MW system has 25*400kW generators – redundancy offers system reliability even in market introduction– Use of standard H2 plant technology eliminates technical risk

for a major component of the fuel cell power plant

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The Gulf Coast market opportunity –emissions driver

• Multiple non-attainment areas• State Implementation Plans (SIPs) call for

significant NOx emission reductions (in HGA, approximately 70% of the projected 2007 inventory; 90+% for point sources)

• HGA SIP also calls for VOC emission reductions (approximately 25% of the projected 2007 inventory)

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The Gulf Coast business case• Available hydrogen is well over 250MW –

enough to support market penetration at very high production volume (at least for fuel cells!)

• Delivered electricity costs for zero-NOx, zero-VOC, etc. power are “very cheap”

• Very attractive generation cost for utilities and chemical companies who must reduce NOx under the SIP

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Delivered energy costs

Delivered cost of energy

TurbineIndustrial

CommercialResidential

Unbundled FC

Current fuel cell

-$0.040

-$0.020

$0.000

$0.020

$0.040

$0.060

$0.080

$0.100

$0.120

$0.140

Cos

t of

ener

gy

($/k

Wh)

CreditsFuelO&MCapitalGrid

$0.039 $0.042$0.11Net electricity cost

Capital = $1500/kW Natural gas = $4.50/MMBtu

Spreadsheet available upon request

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Thank you!