SEOUL — Korea Midland Power, a public energy company, has partnered with Doosan Fuel Cell, a subsidiary of South Korea’s Doosan Group, to demonstrate a power generating system that creates electricity using residual heat generated by phosphoric acid fuel cells.
Korea Midland Power (KOMIPO) said in a statement on Thursday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Doosan Fuel Cell to cooperate in the demonstration project for the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system, a type of a turbogenerator that converts thermal energy to mechanical energy, which uses residual heat generated by phosphoric acid fuel cells.
“This collaboration will serve as an opportunity to develop various follow-up projects through fuel cell power generation projects utilizing domestic technologies,” KOMIPO CEO Park Hyung-koo was quoted as saying.
The two companies would apply an optimized ORC model to a 7.48-megawatt phosphoric acid fuel cell facility in the southwestern seaside city of Boryeong and demonstrate various clean-energy generation methods. ORC generation is considered a clean energy power generation method as it reuses waste heat.
ORC is a widely used thermal power generation method that normally uses an organic, high molecular mass fluid with a low boiling point. The fluid is evaporated using the heat generated by industrial waste heat, geothermal heat or other residual heat to turn turbines that create electricity. The evaporated gas turns back into the fluid through condensation processes.
Phosphoric acid fuel cells use liquid phosphoric acid as an electrolyte. They were the first type of fuel cells that have been used for stationary power generators with output in the range of 100 kW to 400 kW.
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