International Fuel Cells Corporation

Advanced Water-Cooled Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell Development, Final Report," Report No. DE/MC/24221-3130, International Fuel Cells Corporation for U.S. DOE under Contract DE-AC21-88MC24221, South Windsor, CT, September 1992. 

Around 1993, United Technologies, through its International Fuel Cells Corporation and ONSI subsidiaries, began building 200-kW phosphoric acid fuel cell plants. About 200 of these plants have been deployed, around the world, at a rate of about two dozen a year since the program started. So far, these are the only commercially available fuel cell plants. 

The commercialization of this type of electrode is being followed by Energy Research Corporation (ERC), International Fuel Cells Corporation and M-C Power Corporation (MCP)in the USA Brandstofel Nederland (BCN), Deutsche Aerospace AG and Ansaldo (Italy) in Europe and Hitachi, Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in Japan. 

For fuel cell systems operating on reformates, high levels of aimnonia and CO2 may be present in the fuel stream. Ammonia is known to be detrimental to PEM fuel cell catalysts. It is desirable to reduce the concentration of aimnonia in the fuel stream to below 2 ppm. However, ion filters, if used alone, will be quickly saturated due to the high concentration of ammonia in the water. A water "contact cooler" has been used to transfer the ammonia into a reservoir of water, which needs to be dumped or cleaned. To achieve water neutral operation, Bonville et al with International Fuel Cells Corporation (Japan) [63] patented a method to remove the ammonia in the contaminated stack water via a steam stripping process, which removes ammonia around 400 ppm (and CO2 as well) from contaminated water to about 30 ppm. An ammonia-laden steam is discharged to the environment. A demineralization bed is then used to further reduce ammonia concentration in the water to an acceptable low level. 

PAFC is the most commercialised technology all over the world. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation in Japan, Fiji Electric Corporation, Toshiba Corporation and International Fuel Cell Corporation in the United States are actively engaged in improving the PAFC technology. Figure 1.15 shows the schematic of PAFC. 

Development History Phosphoric acid fuel cells were developed from the 1970s through the 1990s by several companies in the United States, including ONSI, a division of International Fuel Cells (IFC), which eventually became United Technologies Corporation... 

The PAFC technology is considered to be the only commercial available fuel cell. The PAFC plants rely heavily on the quality of power produced from the stacks. The largest power of 11 MW has been achieved using the PAFC plant built by international fuel cells and Toshiba for Tokyo Electric Power. The major industrial developers of PAFC are Fuji Electric, Toshiba and Mitsubishi Electric Company (Japan) and UTC fuel cells (ONSI Corporation, United States). Mitsubishi Electric Company has demonstrated cell performance of 0.65 mV at 300 mA/cm. In 1991, Tokyo Electric Company demonstrated cell performance of 0.71 V at 431 mA/cm. Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd. of India and Caltex Oil Corporation of South Korea are new entrants for the PAFC technology. 

Fuel Cell Handbook 6th edition, Report prepared by EG G Services, Parsons, Inc. and Science Applications International Corporation under contract no. DE-AM26-99FT40575 for the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Morgantown, WV, October 2002. 

B. Baker, S. Gionfriddo, A. Leonida, H. Maru, P. Patel, "Internal Reforming Natural Gas Fueled Carbonate Fuel Cell Stack," Final Report prepared by Energy Research Corporation for the Gas Research Institute, Chicago, IL, under Contract No. 5081-244-0545, March, 1984. M. Farooque, Data from ERC testing, 1992. 

Anonymous. Fuel Cell Handbook (Fifth Edition), By EG G Services Parsons, Inc. Science Applications International Corporation, U.S. Department of Energy. Office of Fossil Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory. October (2000). 

The individual graphitic layers are the basic building blocks of carbon black particles. The morphology and particle size distribution of carbon black is dependent on the source material and the process of its thermal decomposition. Particle size and distribution determine directly the specific surface area (SSA) which is one of the most important properties of carbon black for fuel cell applications. High surface area (ranging from a few hundreds to 2000-3000m2 g-1) carbon blacks suitable for fuel cell applications can be obtained from Cabot Corporation (Vulcan XC-72R, Black Pearls BP 2000), Ketjen Black International, Chevron (Shawinigan), Erachem and Denka. 

Kinetics Technology International Corporation, December 1978. "Assessment of Fuel Processing Systems for Dispersed Fuel Cell Power Plants", prepared for Electric Power Research Institute,... 

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