FuelCellsWorks

AFC Energy, the low cost fuel cell company, is pleased to announce the demonstration of its fuel cell system successfully operating on industrially produced hydrogen at AkzoNobel’s chlor-alkali plant in Bitterfeld, Germany.

In further detail, following the announcement made by the Company on the 16 April 2009 that it had delivered a fuel cell system to AkzoNobel, the company has successfully completed its:

• practical review of the installation methodology and system integration.
• installation of the fuel cell system
• testing of the fuel cell system, using standard electrodes
• demonstration of ease and speed of installation and changing of its electrode cartridge system
• repeated start up, thermal and load cycling tests
• demonstration of electricity generation using industrially produced hydrogen taken directly from a chlor-alkali plant without pre-treatment.
• Testing of invertor technology by feeding electricity produced from the fuel cell system into AkzoNobel’s electricity grid.

The next significant phase will be to bring the fuel cell system to full commercial operation at Bitterfeld, by installing AFC Energy’s proprietary low cost electrodes, and then deliver further fully operational systems. Work will continue both at AFC Energy’s headquarters and on site at Bitterfeld to ensure progressive improvements to system performance so as to achieve full design specification. In particular, AFC Energy’s work will be concentrating on optimising its proprietary low cost electrodes on an iterative basis.

The commercial goal of AFC Energy is that of an Energy Supply Company (“ESCO”) whereby a customer supplies AFC Energy with hydrogen and AFC Energy sells electricity back to the customer or to the grid. The Company intends to initiate commercial discussions with interested parties for the joint development of ESCO models within the chlor-alkali industry where favourable subsidies in Europe and rising electricity prices are enabling the construction of business models with the potential for rapid payback of capital.

Ian Balchin, AFC Energy’s Managing Director, said: “This is a major milestone in the progress of the company. I wish to extend my thanks to the team of people from AFC Energy and AkzoNobel that have contributed towards this success. We have commenced work on producing a larger 25kW+ system and broadening commercial relations in the chlor-alkali industry.”

The Obama Administration’s 2010 Department of Energy budget put forward a cut in the federal hydrogen fuel cell research and deployment by more than two thirds ($130million). However, California Air Resources Board Chairman Mary Nichols wants that funding back.

She met with US Energy Secretary Steven Chu and followed that meeting with a letter urging the continuation of funding to support research, development and deployment of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. This is despite the fact that Chu, in an interview with MIT Technology Review, stated that “four miracles” would be required for fuel cells to become viable: relating to their durability and cost; production; storage; and distribution infrastructure.

According to the Air Resources Board analysis, most vehicles on the road in 2050 will need to be electric drive or ultra-low carbon fuel vehicles – that is electricity or hydrogen – if the 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases is to be achieved.

That prompted Nichols to attach a summary of how each of the “four miracles” could be met:

Cost - She outlined that durability has improved and costs reduced through research and development. Fuel cell vehicles are expected to be cost competitive with other advanced technologies and are approaching the cost of advanced hybrids even with current designs.

Production – A well-to-wheels analysis by the Department of Energy found that using hydrogen from natural gas would mean the emission of 63 per cent fewer greenhouse gases than today’s petrol vehicles and 37 per cent fewer than natural gas vehicles.

Storage - There are already 140 fuel cell vehicles that have accumulated more than 85,000 hours of operation and 1.9 million miles in real world testing.

Infrastructure – The letter outlined that when produced in high volume, hydrogen can be made efficiently from a number of feedstocks including natural gas, biomass and coal. The National Research Council has estimated it would cost $2.2million to build a hydrogen fuelling station that could support 1,500 FCVs – the equivalent of $1,500 per vehicle. Meanwhile, according to an Idaho National Laboratory estimate, the average cost of a 240V circuit needed for a PHEV-30 or PHEV-40 would be $1,500-$2,100.

We want to know your views on this issue. Should more money be invested into hydrogen fuel cell vehicles or was the US Government right to cut its funding? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.