Monday, March 31, 2008 - 3:10 PM

Renewable Hydrogen Co-Production from a High Temperature Fuel Cell

Fred C. Jahnke1, Pinakin Patel1, Daniel W. Tyndall2, and Frank Holcomb3. (1) FuelCell Energy, Inc., (2) Air Products & Chemicals, Inc., (3) U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

FuelCell Energy, Inc. has been working on H2 co-production from a DFC® fuel cell (DFC- H2®) for the last 3 years.  The concept of DFC- H2® was first presented at the NHA conference in 2004.  In 2005, we obtained funding support from the Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (APCI) and the DOE under Air Product’s “Hydrogen Energy Station” (HES) work. In 2006, FuelCell Energy and Air Products tested key equipment needed to demonstrate the design. In 2007, FCE and APCI developed a prototype design and begin procuring equipment and constructing a prototype unit.  This year, we plan to test the 250kw scale prototype at FCE.  This unit is expected to produce 250kw of power and up to 300 lb/day of pure hydrogen.  The high efficiency of the co-produced hydrogen reduces CO2 emissions by >30% relative to standard methane based production technology.

During development, we identified a novel EHS (electrical hydrogen separation) system as a further improvement.   Additional funding from DOD's U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC-CERL) has been received for EHS and development is being pursued in parallel to the more commercial PSA based purification system.  Prototype EHS systems have been built and tested including a 7,500+ hr system test at the University of Connecticut’s Fuel Cell Center.  A deployment strategy for DOD and industrial uses is being developed.

In addition, by using anaerobic digester gas (ADG) as fuel, renewable H2 can be efficiently generated.  FCE has over 20 commercial DFC® units operating or under development with ADG feed and the penalty for ADG compared to natural gas in a DFC- H2® unit is small. 

Because H2 demand is uncertain, FCE and APCI have also been looking at innovative methods to vary the H2 production and still maintain the high 60%+ efficiency of the system. 

Presentation will review the current DFC-H2® system performance expectations, development status, ADG performance and potential innovative future configurations.


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