Solid oxide fuel cell companies

Hikita T. Research and development of planar solid oxide fuel cells at Tokyo Gas. In Badwal SPS, Bannister MJ, Hannink RHJ, editors. Science and Technology of Zirconia V., Lancaster, PA Technical Publishing Company, 1993 674—681. 

Siemens-Westinghouse Power Corporation, of Pittsburgh, PA, with a subcontract to Allison Engine Company, evaluated a pressurized solid oxide fuel cell coupled with conventional gas turbine technology without a steam plant. The system was operated at a pressure of 7 atm. The fuel cell generated 16 MW of power and the gas turbine generated 4 MW of power. The process showed 67 % efficiency as developed. An efficiency of 70 % is deemed achievable with improvement in component design. The COE is predicted to be comparable to present day alternatives. NOx levels were less than 1 ppm. 

The Australian company Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL), a leader in planar SOFCs, is seeking to identify potential partners to create market-ready packages that would incorporate solid oxide fuel cells. 

Fuel cells can be used to generate electricity, heat, and hydrogen. FuelCell Energy uses this technique in its molten carbonate fuel cell. Some solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) companies are developing similar products. 

Other companies working on planar solid oxide fuel cell power plants include Dornier as part of the Daimler-Benz group, and, in Japan, Tonen, Sanyo Electric, Murata, and Mitsubishi. 

The last section (19.6) is focused on the commercial potential and perspectives of using metal ammines in connection with, for example, polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) as well as selective catalytic reduction (SCR)-DeNO c (NO c removal) in the transport sector, and it includes comments on the global availability and low cost of the carrier salts. This section also provides the authors perspectives on future trends and challenges in metal ammine research, along with links to the interested reader for further information on key articles, companies and websites. 

In 1992, a company called Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL) was founded by a number of companies from the electrotechnical sector and other industries as well as certain government structures. It is the basic aim of this company to develop flat solid-oxide fuel cells for distributed power generation. Soon after its work beginning, this firm attained great success in SOFC development and became one of the world leaders in this area. About 80 persons work in this company. The funding volume from the private sector and from government subsidies attained a level of 60 million Australian dollars (Godfrey et al., 2000). 

H. W. Venderbosch, Survey Desulphurisation of Natural Gas for Fuel Cell Systems (inDutch),KEMA-reportno. 34051-FPP 95-4612,1996. Pressurized Solid Oxide Fuel Cell/Gas Turbine Power System, Final Report DE-AC26-98FT40355 by Siemens Westinghouse Power Company for the US Department of Energy, February 2000. 

The Webasto Thermosystems GmbH company is developing a 5-kW solid oxide auxiliary power unit. A partial oxidation reactor supplies the fuel cell with reformate. 

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