FuelCell Energy, Inc. (NasdaqNM:FCEL), a leading manufacturer of ultra-clean electric power plants for commercial and industrial customers, announced its selection by Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC), of Johnstown, Pa., to modify its fuel cell power plant to run on HD-5-grade propane and switch rapidly between fuels. The system and engineering enhancements will enable the stationary power plant to generate base load electricity even in situations when fuel supplies are threatened due to natural disaster or security issues. The R&D project is being sponsored by the federal government to augment the ability of Direct FuelCell (DFC) power plants with a “dual fuel” capacity. CTC is the primary contractor to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, involving its Engineer Research and Development Center’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC–CERL).
The fuel-switching process, which is being developed for FuelCell Energy’s DFC300A power plant, is designed to take place in extremely rapid fashion. Once engineered and evaluated, it is anticipated that the fuel switch will take less than a minute.
“The military is always looking for multiple options, whether on the battlefield or in connection with critical stationary facilities here at home,” said Franklin H. Holcomb, CERL’s fuel cell team project leader. “The ability to switch fuels on the fly, from the standpoint of security, is highly desirable.”
DFC units currently are capable of running on any hydrocarbon fuel that has been desulfurized, including natural gas, diesel, jet fuel, coal gas, digester gas, coal mine methane, gasified biomass, coke oven gas, etc. In every case, DFC units maintain their ability to run on an ultra-clean basis, producing virtually no nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide emissions.
“The dual fuel capability of our DFC power plants demonstrates that our products can be an important part of the enhancement of our nation’s homeland security efforts,” said Dan Brdar, Chief Operating Officer of FuelCell Energy. “If events disrupt the natural gas pipeline or the electricity grid, our fuel cells can immediately switch to on-site propane and provide the necessary power for essential government and other mission-critical facilities.”
To enable the fuel cell power plant to run on propane fuel requires engineering changes to accommodate the higher steam-to-carbon ratio required for HD-5 propane, installing flow measurement and control instruments for managing propane rather than natural gas, sizing the humihex fuel humidifier for propane’s higher steam/carbon ratio, modifying the control system software, and installing additional control valves for switching fuels.
Initial development will take place at FuelCell Energy’s R&D facilities in Connecticut, and the testing and evaluation phases will move to the existing DFC 300A power plant at CTC’s Fuel Cell Test & Evaluation Center (FCTec) in Pennsylvania, which is a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) test center.
The project is supported by funding through the DoD, the U.S. Army, as well as ERDC–CERL.
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