Fuel cells for stationary power
- From: "lkgeo1" <lkgeo1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 4 Aug 2006 04:25:07 -0700
Fuel cells for stationary power
Fuel cell-based power generation technologies are expected to receive a
huge boost due to current transmission networks' inability to handle
excess demand, issues of transmission losses and the costs incurred
thereby as well as the concern about power quality at the end points.
The domestic requirement of additional electric power is likely to
touch 1.7 trillion kilowatt hour (kWh) in 2020. This is three times the
requirement during 1980 to 2000. It will be a significant challenge for
any power utility to accommodate such a large incremental load using
only its existing transmission and distribution network.
The reluctance of power companies to invest in newer power plants
because of lack of returns and the widening gap between the demand and
supply of power are expected to motivate the distributed power
generation.
"Enhancing or building new power plants could cause power utilities'
reserve margins to exceed peak demand," says Frost & Sullivan Research
Analyst Viswanathan Krishnan. "This scenario can drive the distributed
power generation sector, for which the fuel cell technologies are
considered the most appropriate for its various benefits such as high
energy conversion efficiency and its potential to offer reliable and
quality power."
Nevertheless, the development of these fuel cell technologies has been
restrained largely due to high costs, complex designs and fuel
problems. The industry is optimistic about resolving these issues with
researchers and companies enthusiastically developing innovative
solutions for the inherent problems in the application of fuel cells in
stationary power.
For fuel cell technology to be effective commercially, technology
developers have to devise strategies to reduce the costs of fuel cell
systems. In stationary fuel cell systems' stacks, costs are lowered by
minimising the use of expensive materials.
While one method is to enhance fuel cell units' cost-competitiveness is
to produce them in large volumes, technology developers also need to
focus on inventive and economical ways to obtain hydrogen from
hydrocarbons or from other sources to increase the use of fuel
cell-based systems.
Researchers have already developed a direct fuel cell-based technology
that uses potassium lithium carbonate as the electrolyte, operates at
1200 deg C, and provides 250 kilowatt (kW) to 3 megawatt (MW) power.
This technology can help generate electricity directly from hydrocarbon
fuels such as natural gas and wastewater treatment gas.
This one-step energy conversion process offers significant cost
benefits over competing technologies such as phosphoric acid fuel cells
(PAFCs) and proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), which use
complex reforming techniques.
In another cost-related issue, technology developers will have to
ensure the availability of hydrogen-rich natural gas to facilitate
distributed generation applications as well as to stabilise prices to
drive greater uptake of the technology.
An important factor that is driving the industry further is the growing
concern for environment and fossil fuels, which has motivated
participants to look for various alternate power generation
technologies. Leading research institutions and companies prefer fuel
cell-based power generation, as the electrochemical conversion of
chemical energy to electricity in a fuel cell is a 'green process'.
"The elegant emission profile - emitting trace sulphur and nitrogen -
makes these technologies an ideal choice for stationary power
applications," notes Mr Krishnan.
For more information, visit http://ti.frost.com
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