Fuel Cells as Renewable Power?

By Jeff St. John

Fuel cells powered from natural gas – they're clean, but are they renewable power?

The state of Connecticut says yes, and FuelCell Energy (FCEL) says that's good news.

The Danbury, Conn.-based maker of large-scale fuel cells for stationary power generation is set to nearly double its projected backlog of 48 megawatts of projects with a deal that places 43 megawatts of its fuel cells in Connecticut projects.

The projects are at electricity grid substations, natural gas stations and hospitals, which is a decent overview of the types of clients, including military and industrial and commercial facilities, that have about 50 megawatts of FuelCell Energy devices installed to date.

Some run on natural gas, as do FuelCell Energy's devices being installed by South Korean utility POSCO Power (PKX). Other projects, like one that started operations last week in California, run on biogas derived from agricultural waste, wastewater and other renewable or waste sources (see Green Light post and San Diego to Get Four Fuel-Cell Power Plants).

Those are "renewable under any standard," said FuelCell Energy CEO Dan Brdar. But in Connecticut, even fuel cells that run on natural gas are considered renewable power under the state's renewable portfolio standard, he said.

Other markets are joining suit. Those that haven't, such as California, offer other incentives that fuel cells can take advantage of, such as bonuses for companies that generate power on-site, he said.

The main reason, he believes, is that fuel cells offer one of the most efficient ways to convert hydrocarbons – or the hydrogen in them at least – to energy without all the nasty emissions that come from burning them.

Fuel cells convert hydrogen from a variety of sources into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen, yielding only water as an end product. Some fuel cell technologies, such as those using proton exchange membranes, need very "clean" hydrogen to operate well, while others, such as direct methanol fuel cells, are made to run on other fuels.

Fuel cells for portable or vehicle applications are being developed by such companies as Protonex Technology, Medis Technologies, UltraCell, Jadoo Power, Smart Fuel Cell and Toshiba (TOSBF.PK) (see Uncle Sam Wants Portable Fuel Cells).

Those making fuel cells for vehicles have been disappointed by the Department of Energy’s decision in May to cut funding for fuel cell vehicle research (see Green Light post).

Other providers of stationary fuel cells for distributed generation include Ballard Power Systems (BLDP), Plug Power (PLUG) and United Technologies (UTX) (see Plug Power Puts Fuel Cells in Forklifts).

Unlike those devices, FuelCell Energy's molten carbonate fuel cells run at very high temperatures. That does limit their use to stationary devices, but it also allows 50 percent efficiencies in converting hydrogen to energy, Brdar said.

Molten carbonate fuel cells also don’t need expensive materials like platinum as catalysts, as do proton exchange membrane-based fuel cells. But the high temperatures also make it harder to maintain molten carbonate fuel cells, along with another high-temperature sodium oxide fuel cells, according to the Department of Energy.

FuelCell Energy is working on a DOE-funded research project aimed at making sodium oxide fuel cells that can convert coal-derived syngas to electricity, Brdar said.

It has also developed a way to combine its fuel cells with natural gas turbines, using the fuel cell's excess heat to boost their efficiency to around 60 percent, he said.

Comments

[tblakeslee:]

The great thing about natural gas powered fuel cells is that the very high temperature exhaust can be used directly for heating, air conditioning and industrial processes. That means the 50% of the fuels energy that would normally be wasted can be put to good use. Overall efficiencies of mare than 85% are possible by generating power where heat is needed. Since natural gas only emits 55% as much CO2 as coal and 85% is about 3X the efficiency of a coal plant, power can be generated with about 1/5 as much CO2 emitted as coal. That's better than Futuregen and it works now!
clrlight.org/BiomassCo...

Jul 21 10:56 AM

[john s. gordon:]

if you need hot water in your hospital etc. the heat is available as a byproduct from the MCFC.
> jack

Jul 21 11:13 AM

[Asmj:]

Fuel Source for the fuel cells has to be renewable like landfill gas,biomass or biogas in order for it to qualify as being a renewable power generation. As per reducing the amount of gas being used as it is a higher efficiency generator than a conventional natural gas turbine generator, it still puts out NOx and CO2 emissions. I think the solution for a fuel cell being renewable power is fuel cells using renewable/waste gas and not using exhausting GHG gases.

Jul 21 11:39 AM

[WayneS:]

Asmj - How do you know that the CO2 from fossil fuels is not absorbed by plantlife? Landfill gas, biomass and biogas also exhaust GHG when used. The only part of energy that can be renewable is CO2. The rest is dispersed and lost.

Jul 21 10:46 PM

[A Barrel Full:]

I can see that classifying a natural gas system as renewable is not without problems. However, not to do so would disadvantage a great way to increase efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions.


On Jul 21 11:39 AM Asmj wrote:

> Fuel Source for the fuel cells has to be renewable like landfill
> gas,biomass or biogas in order for it to qualify as being a renewable
> power generation. As per reducing the amount of gas being used as
> it is a higher efficiency generator than a conventional natural gas
> turbine generator, it still puts out NOx and CO2 emissions. I think
> the solution for a fuel cell being renewable power is fuel cells
> using renewable/waste gas and not using exhausting GHG gases.

Jul 22 07:40 AM

[jerrydd:]

Only fuel cells who's heat can be used are eff but that goes for most and ICE., steam units too at much less cost. No one mentions fuel conditioning costs for fuel cells or it's eff..

No way can NG fuel cells be green though way better than coal. A NG gas turbine/steam turbine cogen is as eff as fuel cell cogens.

Not a chance in hell fuel cells will be viable in cars. Physics is too against it. Why is an ICE is more eff at much less cost and runs on more fuels.

But EV's far outclass either being 3x's as eff thus will win the race in our energy constrained future. And in 3 yrs they will be cheaper than gas cars.

Jul 22 09:09 AM

[neurontogo:]

y

Jul 22 04:29 PM

[neurontogo:]

LAST TIME FCEL CAN RUN ON ONION PEELS WASTE WATER AND A DOZEN OTHER SOURE"S. THIS SHOUD HAVE BEEN DONE WAY BACK, THEY ARE STATIONARY UNIT"S EVEN THE MILITARY HAS THEM. THESE POWER PLANTS RUN ON A DOZEN THINGS AND WAIST NOTHING.BUT MONITARY GAIN HAD TO COME FIRST FOR THE FAT CAT OIL CAO:S BUT NOW NO MORE GAME'S THE CLOCK IS TICKING AND NOT IN OUR FAVOR THEY HAVE TO DECIDE AND NOW .SMALL TID BIT THE TWO MAIN GAS's ARE FROM INDUSTRIAL PLANTS.I DONT WANT TO SEEM LIKE THE GRIM REAPER HERE . BUT IT IS WHAT IT IS DECIDE FAST PROCRASTON GOT US HERE NOW WAKE UP. TAKE CARE

Jul 22 04:57 PM

[Ray Winter:]

When compared with the wasteful 'flaring-off' of Natural Gas, fuel cells are a highly efficient use of the earth's natural resources.

Jul 24 06:32 AM

[bobchr:]

There are a few cities across the US currently using fuel cells to consume the gasses produced by anerobic digesters in municipal waste water treatment plants. In most cases enough energy is produced to power all the facility's electrical needs. This is text book renewable as the 2 gasses are not that different in composition.

Aug 22 08:28 PM

[medallionstock:]

Some think alternative fuel should be advanced as opposed to hybrids and ev plugins. For instance, the Natural gas reserves in the United States alone, is predicted by analysts, to last the 300 million person population for the next 100 years. Yahoo Finance explores the use of alternative fuels for automotive development applications:
finance.yahoo.com/news...

Sep 22 01:18 PM