Fuel cell powerplants

Bowlan, P. and Hanoley, L.M., in "First Generation Fuel Cell Powerplant Characteristics,"United Technol. publication, Nov. 1977. 

The present state of the art in fuel cell powerplant sensor technology is embodied in the UTCFC PAFC PC 25 and PEM S200 powerplants. However, none of the chemical sensors, and only a very few of the physical sensors are "on-board" the powerplant. Furthermore, only temperature and stack differential pressure, in the S200, are measured continuously for control purposes. Production... 

Design 14 kilowatts (kW) fuel cell powerplant Design metal-hydride storage... 

A joint venture between the Fuel Cell Propulsion Institute (a nonprofit consortium of industry participants) and Vehicle Projects LLC (project management) provided the basis for the 2 phase project. In phase I, SandiaNational Laboratories was tasked with the design of the fuel cell powerplant and the metal-hydride storage, as well as system integration. Phase 2 includes system evaluation, safety and risk assessment, and underground testing in a production environment. 

Figure 2. Schematic Layout of Fuel Cell Powerplant and Metal-Hydride Storage...

The DMFC is the most attractive type of fuel cell as a powerplant for electric vehicles and as a portable power source, because methanol is a liquid fuel with values for the specific energy and energy density being about equal to half those for liquid hydrocarbon fuels (gasoline and diesel fuel). 

The near-term prospects for fuel cell vehicles were also overhyped in the late 1990s. In November 2002, a major study titled Hybrid Competitive Automobile Powerplants concluded, The industry is currently experiencing a backlash to the just around the corner hype that has surrounded the automotive fuel cell in recent years. 6... 

MSHA measured noise levels (Table 1) of the locomotive under a number of operating conditions, including acceleration (2). Unlike some fuel cell vehicles, our locomotive is very quiet under all conditions. It emanates a pleasant, low frequency purring, and normal conversation can easily be carried out while standing beside the operating powerplant. Consequently, the steel-wheel-to-steel-track generated noise will be the most prevalent. 

All the advantages of SC-SOFCs mentioned above and the last very serious disadvantage predetermined the main possible fields of application for this fuel cell variety low- and medium-sized portable and mobile powerplants for electronic devices and eleclric vehicles and also small units for individual homes and for backup power. All these application areas are now expanding rapidly and require appropriate new power sources. In contrast to large stationary power plants destined for the production of cheap grid power, for which high fuel utilization is of prime importance, in these application areas Ihe main requirement is the high specific power density of the power unit. 

Figure 1.9 UTC Power supplies fuel cell bus powerplants for transit programs in the United States and Europe. The fuel economy of transit buses powered by a UTC Power PureMotion fuel cell system is two times better than a diesel-powered bus. Fuel ceU-powered buses also emit no harmful tailpipe emissions and operate quietly. (Image Courtesy of UTC Power Corporation.)...

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