NEWS

March 2013 Fuel Cells Bulletin5

The landfill gas cleanup will be performed by prime contractor Quadrogen Power Systems, and the cleaned landfill gas will be used by the Direct FuelCell® molten carbonate fuel cell power plant to generate multiple revenue streams, including ultra-clean electricity, usable high-quality heat, and renewable hydrogen. Hot water will be supplied to Village Farms, a leading hydroponic greenhouse operator, while the ‘green’ hydrogen will also be exported for vehicle fuelling or industrial applications.

‘Cleaning landfill gas before it is used by the fuel cells represents unique challenges of removing impurities that can impact fuel cell performance, as well as removing harmful organic chemicals which do not affect the fuel cells but can’t be released to the atmosphere,’ says Alakh Prasad, president and CEO of Quadrogen. The company builds and installs modular, high-performance biogas cleanup solutions capable of purifying renewable fuels from any source, such as landfill, digester, or syngas.

‘This project provides our first opportunity to demonstrate the application of our Direct FuelCell technology with renewable landfill gas, in addition to advancing our hydrogen co-production technology,’ says Tony Leo, VP of application engineering & advanced technology development for FuelCell Energy. ‘Our partner in this project, Quadrogen Power Systems, has developed an effective cleanup technology, as demonstrated by the high performance of their equipment at an existing hydrogen co-production fuel cell installation in California that is providing ultra-clean electricity and hydrogen for vehicle fuelling from renewable biogas generated by a wastewater treatment plant’ [FCB, August 2011, p1].

The project will also feature FuelCell Energy’s solid-state electrochemical hydrogen separation and compression (EHSC) technology [FCB, November 2011, p11], which efficiently and cost-effectively purifies and compresses hydrogen for industrial uses or vehicle fuelling.

The landfill for the City of Vancouver has an advanced gas collection system. Some of the gas is flared, wasting a potential fuel source and generating pollutants. A successful project demonstration could lead to additional projects at this landfill as well as other landfills.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is providing a repayable contribution through the federal Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program, delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC. Other project partners include Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), National Research Council of Canada (NRC), and BC Bioenergy Network.

The use of biogas is attracting increasing interest for fuel cell applications; BC-based

Ballard Power Systems has just sold a ClearGen™ distributed generation PEM fuel cell system – running on gasified timber by-product feedstock – to an Indian reservation in northern California [see item above].

FuelCell Energy, Danbury, Connecticut, USA. Tel: +1 203 825 6000, www.fuelcellenergy.com

Quadrogen Power Systems, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Tel: +1 604 221 7170, www.quadrogen.com

Village Farms International: www.villagefarms.com

Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC: www.iafbc.ca

SFC Energy’s EFOY Pro powers wind measurement systems

In Germany, GWU-Umwelttechnik GmbH has selected the proven EFOY

Pro fuel cell generator from SFC Energy as the power source for its LIDAR wind measurement trailer. LIDAR is used for assessing wind fields in the atmosphere at various heights and points in time, such as for wind farm planning.

LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) systems emit laser beams at regular intervals, to determine wind speed and direction profiles at heights of 200–300 m above the ground. In this application, modern LIDAR systems are replacing the previously used wind masts, since they provide better data, are easily set up and dismantled, and are not recognisable at first glance.

The GWU trailer is used for transporting, storing, and operating the Windcube v2 Doppler LIDAR wind measurement system from market leader Leosphere in France. It will now be powered by an EFOY Pro 2200 XT direct methanol fuel cell unit.

Doppler wind LIDAR measuring systems usually remain in one location for up to 12 months. The EFOY Pro fuel cell generator ensures a reliable, uninterrupted supply of power for such operation and, in winter, also heating of the systems. The EFOY Pro operates in hybrid mode with a solar module in a power pack developed by Leosphere, GWU-Umwelttechnik GmbH, and system integrator and SFC partner udomi. The fuel cell generator enables autonomous operation of the system for months on end without any user intervention, significantly lowering operating and logistical costs.

An EFOY Pro fuel cell generator has enabled the undisturbed video observation of a pair of white-tailed eagles over their recent breeding

I N B R I E F

Arcola fuel cell developer kit is hit at uniUK-based Arcola Energy (www.arcolaenergy.com), in partnership with Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies (www.horizonfuelcell.com) and MIT Fab Labs, launched the Hydrogen Maker Developer Kit™ (H2MDK) last summer [FCB, June 2012, p12]. The H2MDK – powered by a 1.5, 12 or 30 W Horizon PEM fuel cell in combination with the popular Arduino microelectronics developer platform – allows researchers, commercial product developers, inventors, and hobbyists to build customised fuel cell systems to fit their individual applications.

Recent UK customers include the universities of Oxford and Salford, as well as Imperial College in London. International sales include the Republic Polytechnic in Singapore, and a customised 5 × 200 W system for the Université de technologie Belfort-Montbéliard in France.

Hannover hydrogen energy storage focusOne of the central topics of the Group Exhibit Hydrogen + Fuel Cells (www.h2fc-fair.com) at this year’s Hannover Messe (8–12 April) is the storage of renewable energy from wind and solar in the form of hydrogen. Several innovative ‘Power-to-Gas’ concepts will be on show at the German trade fair.

More than 130 companies and research institutions from 20 countries will join the Group Exhibit. The exhibitors will showcase the entire spectrum of hydrogen technology, from hydrogen generation to its use in stationary and mobile fuel cell applications.

There will also be fuel cell electric vehicles from Daimler, GM/Opel, Toyota, and Honda available for a test-drive. Linde will refuel them with hydrogen three times a day, while ITM Power will generate hydrogen on the spot to refuel a a hydrogen bus for transporting visitors.

Call for papers for US Fuel Cell SeminarAbstracts are now being invited for the 2013 Fuel Cell Seminar & Energy Exposition (www.fuelcellseminar.com), taking place 21–24 October in Columbus, Ohio. Abstracts must be submitted online by Monday 20 May.

Prospective presenters are invited to submit abstracts in four main topic areas: motive and automotive, stationary power and energy production, business to business enterprise solutions, and education.

The key areas within motive and automotive are OEMs, materials handling, hydrogen fuelling storage and generation, and R&D. For stationary power and energy production, abstracts are sought on applications, OEMs, fuels, and R&D. The key B2B areas are telecoms, military, APUs, and portables. And for education, papers should be on fuel cell and hydrogen degrees and college curriculum development, school curricula, and public outreach.

PORTABLE & MICRO

NEWS

6Fuel Cells Bulletin March 2013

season in northern Scotland [FCB, January 2013, p5, and see the feature on SFC Energy in that issue].

SFC Energy, Brunnthal/Munich, Germany. Tel: +49 89 673 5920, www.sfc.com or www.efoy-pro.com

GWU-Umwelttechnik GmbH: www.gwu-group.de

US Navy testing mobile regenerative fuel cell/solar system

The US Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) at

China Lake in California is trialling a 5 kW trailer-mounted regenerative fuel cell system, which can be towed with an array of solar panels to remote locations to power a command post.

During the day, the command centre would be powered by solar energy, with the fuel cell operated in reverse as an electrolyser, using excess solar power to produce hydrogen from its own by-product water. At night, the stored hydrogen that was produced during the day would be sent through the fuel cell to create electricity.

‘A possible scenario is that this system can be taken out to a command post in the middle of nowhere,’ says Matt Malone, an electronics engineer in the NAWCWD Renewable Energy Office. ‘It is completely environmentally friendly, and all of the fuel cell parts are recyclable.’

Malone and the Renewable Energy Office team wrote the requirements for the system and coordinated with an unnamed contractor that produced the hardware. The team will test and evaluate the system in a lab at China Lake before sending it out with troops for field testing.

‘There is a whole logistics challenge associated with the use of fossil fuels, especially in remote areas,’ says Wayne Taylor, programme manager for the Renewable Energy Office. ‘Since this system only needs water to operate, one of its biggest benefits is reducing the logistics requirements associated with fuel convoys.’

Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division: www.navair.navy.mil/nawcwd

Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake: www.cnic.navy.mil/chinalake

Intelligent Energy, Cable & Wireless to power digital devices

At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Intelligent

Energy announced a collaboration with Cable & Wireless Communications, to test consumer electronic devices powered by Intelligent Energy’s PEM fuel cell technology.

Intelligent Energy and Cable & Wireless Communications – in particular its Sure brand serving Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man – will work together to test personal energy devices powered by Intelligent Energy’s PEM fuel cell technology for various mobile devices across their market sectors. This summer the companies will begin a user trial of an Intelligent Energy portable power device.

The requirement for portable power has grown exponentially, driven by the ever greater power needs of our ‘on-the-go’ electronic devices, such as smartphones. Unfortunately, battery power has not kept pace, and the constant need to maintain battery life has become an area of consumer disappointment.

In response, global mobile operators are keen to find a solution to the battery conundrum, so that they can deliver the best user experience, earn the loyalty of their customers, and increase the average revenue per user (ARPU).

‘Intelligent Energy’s cutting-edge technology offers a solution to power our device off-grid, and provides a much longer operating life than a conventional battery,’ says Sure’s head of mobile, Mike Fawkner Corbett. ‘It’s attractive, as it would unlock real additional revenue opportunities for telecom operators, enabling consumers to stay connected for longer and unshackled by the constraints of battery life.’

Intelligent Energy’s interest in the consumer electronics market is a natural extension of its work in the stationary power sector, where the company offers backup power systems for telecom towers in India [FCB, November 2012, p10].

And in the transport sector, Intelligent Energy is participating in the UKH2Mobility project to support the introduction of fuel cell electric vehicles and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure in the UK [FCB, February 2013, p1]. IE is also in a joint venture with Suzuki in Japan to produce fuel cell systems for a range of industry sectors [FCB, February 2012, p3 and see page 8].

CWC’s Sure brand supplies telecom services in Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man. Cable & Wireless is also participating in the EcoIsland initiative, under which the Isle of Wight plans to become a net energy exporter by 2020, utilising a smart grid infrastructure [see page 7, and see the EcoIsland feature in FCB, October 2012].

Intelligent Energy, Loughborough, UK.

Tel: +44 1509 271271, www.intelligent-energy.com

Cable & Wireless Communications: www.cwc.com

HySA centre trialling solar hydrogen pilot plant in South Africa

The HySA Infrastructure Center of Competence in South Africa has

received a state-of-the-art 400 W solar-to-hydrogen installation from German-based Heliocentris. The centre also has a Proton OnSite HOGEN series PEM electrolyser that will be integrated into a 6 kW solar-to-hydrogen pilot plant.

This large pilot plant is the first of its kind in South Africa; both of these installations will be used for training and education purposes in a variety of hydrogen-related technologies including fuel cells, energy storage, energy management, and batteries.

The South African government’s Department of Science & Technology has developed a national strategy for research, development, and innovation in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, known as Hydrogen South Africa (HySA). The overall goal of HySA is to develop and guide innovation along the value chain of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. The strategy’s overall vision is to create wealth, jobs, and intellectual property through the initiation of new high-tech industries based on minerals found on South African soil, especially platinum group metals (PGMs).

HySA is working to achieve this through the establishment of three Centres of Competence: HySA Infrastructure, HySA Catalysis [see page 10 ], and HySA Systems [FCB, November 2012, p10]. The HySA Infrastructure Centre of Competence – focused on hydrogen production, storage and delivery, under director Dr Dmitri Bessarabov – is based on the Potchefstroom campus of North-West University, near Johannesburg.

Contact: Dr Dmitri Bessarabov, HySA Infrastucture, North West University, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Potchefstroom, North West Province, South Africa. Email: dmitri.bessarabov@nwu.ac.za, Web: www.hysainfrastructure.org

Heliocentris Energy Solutions: www.heliocentris.com

Proton OnSite: www.protononsite.com

HyNor Lillestrøm fuelling station using P+E hydrogen purifier

The Norwegian hydrogen highway initiative HyNor has received

FUELLING