DOE Issues Request for Information for Stationary Fuel Cell Manufacturing Research
18 April 2010
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking feedback from the research community and relevant stakeholders to assist in the development of a planned funding opportunity announcement (FOA) for new manufacturing research activities aimed to reduce fuel cell costs and improve the quality and reliability of high temperature (~160-800 °C), Combined Heat and Power (CHP) fuel cells.
Technologies can include, but are not limited to, Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC); Polybenzimidazole (PBI) Fuel Cells; Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells (PAFC); and Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells (MCFC) for stationary power applications.
With the potential to achieve up to 85% overall efficiencies with lower emissions for combined heat and power generation, CHP fuel cells for stationary applications have become an obvious area of interest to the DOE Fuel Cell Technologies (FCT) Program. More specifically, the Manufacturing element of the FCT Program seeks to reduce the capital cost of these systems by approximately 1/3 to $2000/kW by 2015 based solely on manufacturing processes.
DOE is specifying four areas of interest in its RFI:
- Balance of Plant (BOP)
- Manufacturing of Stack Components (membranes, electrodes, interconnects, seals, etc)
- Stack Integration and Assembly
- Interests related to Capital Cost Reduction through Manufacturing
Comments must be received no later than 11:59 PM EDT on 13 May 2010.
Even if initial cost is reduced to ($2000/KW) = ($2/W) i.e close to solar or sun power initial cost, the on-going fuel and maintenance cost could make large fixed fuel cells unattractive. However, it could eventually replace some of the polluting coal fired plants for essential base power loads. Smaller units could be interesting as standby power units.
Posted by: HarveyD | 18 April 2010 at 09:55 AM