Toshiba Fuel Cell Power Systems

The Japanese government is especially active in promoting the use of small, 1 kW, stationary fuel cell systems. In 2005 The New Energy Foundation (NEF) announced a goal of installing 400 units with subsidies of up to 6 million yen per unit (60-75% of the total cost). In 2006 and 2007, the program plans to install 1000 and 5000 units, respectively, with NEF subsidies of up to 3 million yen in 2006 and 2 million yen in 2007. Costs were expected to fall below 1 million yen by the end of the 3-year program. Initially, seven Japanese corporations, mostly utUity companies, were slated to receive the subsidies with fuel cells provided by Ebara Ballard and Toshiba Fuel Cell Power Systems (Adamson 2005). 

Toshiba (2005). 200kW Fuel Cell Power Plant PC25C. Toshiba Fuel Cell Power Systems Corporation. Available at www.toshiba.co.jp. 

TFCPS - Toshiba Fuel Cell Power Systems... 

Toshiba Fuel Cell Power Systems (TFCPS) (Japan) a subsidiary of Toshiba, has the sole purpose of commercialisation of its 1 kW residential PEMFCs by 2008. This is termed the Dash to 2008 when it is planning on having a unit priced on the open market at less than 1.2 miUion Yen (approximately US 9500). The technical targets for the system are a cold start time of less than 10 minutes, overall efficiency of >77% higher heating value (HHV) and 80°C waste heat. In the new company, TFCPS will produce the stacks. 

Morita, H., Toshiba, F., Woudstra, N., Hemmes, K., and Spliethoff, H. (2004) Feasibility study of wood biomass gasification/molten carbonate fuel cell power system -comparative characterization of... 

PAFCs are the first fuel cells to be commercially available. The major manufacturers of these fuel cells are UTC Power, Toshiba Corporation, HydroGen Corporation, Fuji Electric Corporation and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. UTC Power introduced for sale a 200 kW PAFC system in 1991, and over 260 units were delivered to various customers worldwide. The design operational lifetime for these units was 40,000 h and most of the fielded units have met or exceeded this requirement A number of these units are still operational today with fleet leader at Mohegun Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, USA, accumulating more than 76,(X)0 h [48]. Fuji s phosphoric acid fuel cell power plants, launched in 1998 have also demonstrated 40,000 h of life in field and some units after overhaul have exceeded 77,000 h of operational lifetime [1]. 

Companies like Poly Fuel, Neah Power Systems, Medis Technologies, MTI MicroFuel Cells, Alberta Research Council, Toshiba, Hitachi, NEC, CASIO, AIST and Honda Technical Research Laboratory are exploring innovative ways for reduction in component count, elimination of auxiliaries such as pumps and valves, alternatives to membranes and packaging technologies to realize an elegant, simpler micro fuel cell product. Hitachi, Toshiba, NEC and NTT DoCoMo have all announced plans to sell methanol-powered devices (Bostaph et al., 2002, Dillon et al., 2004). 

A subsidiary of lEC and Toshiba Corp. called ONSI Corp. was formed for the commercial development, production, and marketing of packaged PAEC power plants of up to 1-MW capacities. ONSI is commercially manufacturing 200-kW PAEC systems for use in a PC25 power plant. The power plants are manufactured in a highly automated faciHty, using robotic techniques to assemble the repeating electrode, bipolar separator, etc, units into the fuel cell stack. 

Panasonic, with Tokyo Gas, announced in January 2013 that it had reduced the price (excluding installation) of its domestic PEM fuel cell system to 1,995,000 by approximately 760,000, a reduction of 27.5 % from its 2011 model. This itself was a reduction from its 2009 model (selhng at 3,465,000 [104]) of 20 %. A year or so earlier in January 2012 Toshiba, with Osaka Gas, announced that it had reduced the price of its domestic fuel cell system by 650,000- 2,604,000, a 25 % reduction in cost [105]. In both cases sales increases were anticipated and further cost reductions expected. The Panasonic announcement also included further information on the performance and other aspects of the unit. The cost reduction was associated with an improvement of lifetime from 50,000 to 60,000 h a reduction in components by 20 % reduced weight by 10 % and reduced size overall. Of significance was a reduction in noble metals in the fuel processing subsystem by 50 % and platinum catalyst by 50 %. Total efficiency, both heat and power, was calculated at 95 % LHV. 

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