Fujitsu unveils king-size fuel cell

[bananas]

"the fuel cell will pay itself off in around 3.5 years and will last around 15 years"
"The company's goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to below 1990 levels by 2010"

Fujitsu unveils king-size fuel cell
August 17, 2007 4:24 PM PDT



A proton exchange membrane (PEM) hydrogen fuel cell, king-size. Fujitsu inaugurated this fuel cell at its Sunnyvale, Calif., campus on Friday. The fuel cell sits in the parking lot and looks like a pair of giant green dumpsters. Made by UTC Power, the fuel cell will produce 200 kilowatts of power, which is enough to power half of the cooling needed in Fujitsu's data center.

The heat harvested from the reactions required to turn hydrogen into electricity will be used by Fujitsu in the buildings too. Right now, the fuel cell system is 50 percent efficient. That puts it on par with conventional power plants; with conventional systems, over half of the power gets lost in transmission lines or as waste heat before it gets to your house. By capturing more heat, the efficiency of the fuel cell can be raised to 85 percent, says UTC.



Ever wonder how a hydrogen fuel cell works? This poster explains the process. In a nutshell, natural gas (methane, made from carbon and hydrogen) is heated with steam until it cracks. Hydrogen is harvested and then piped to a different unit with a membrane. The membrane harvests electrons from the hydrogen molecules. Carbon dioxide and water are the byproducts. The hot water from the reaction can be used to heat buildings.

<snip 3 more photos>


Related article:

http://news.com.com/Hydrogen+fuel+cells+power+Fujitsu+data+center/2100-11392_3-6203247.html?tag=ne.gall.related

Hydrogen fuel cells power Fujitsu data center
Hydrogen. It's the alternative fuel everyone hates--but apparently it works, according to Fujitsu.

Photos: Fujitsu unveils king-size fuel cell
By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: August 17, 2007, 2:54 PM PDT

<snip>

Although carbon dioxide is expelled when producing hydrogen, the fuel cell will result in about 35 percent less greenhouse gas emissions overall, according to Homer Purcell, UTC vice president of sales. That's about 500 tons of carbon dioxide not emitted a year. It will also save about 800,000 gallons of water a year, he added. Conventional power plants require more water.

<snip>

Utility credits also help. Pacific Gas & Electric gave Fujitsu $500,000 in rebates for installing the system. That works out to $2.50 a watt, or the same amount that homeowners get for installing solar panels. With the subsidy, the fuel cell will pay itself off in around 3.5 years and will last around 15 years, according to Fujitsu

Like many Japanese companies, Fujitsu has set goals for greenhouse gas reductions. (Pollution problems and skyrocketing costs of imported energy in the 1970s kicked off a conservation movement in the country that has remained somewhat strong.)

The company's goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to below 1990 levels by 2010. In 2006, it reduced overall waste in its factories 41 percent from 2003 levels, according to Hideru Yamaguchi, president of the corporate environmental affairs unit at Fujitsu.

The company also has tried to integrate more green ideas into its products. In 2005, for instance, it released a laptop in Japan with a biodegradable chassis made of corn starch-based plastic.

[EVDebs]

1. PEM hydrogen uses platinum as a catalyst, and thus a limiting factor

A much cheaper way to go about creating energy is the Zinc Air Fuel Cell which uses zinc oxide and potassium hydroxide for a catalyst. Oddly the govt and LLNL shut down their efforts in the ZAFC efforts and went 'all in' on the hydrogen PEM stuff.

Zinc air tech moves to commercialization
http://www.llnl.gov/str/News1297.html

...this never occurred

[NNadir]

2. I'm sure they'll be mining the huge natural deposits of hydrogen to exploit this thing.

Unless of course, it's some kind of perpetual motion machine, it is basically a device for making it easier to pretend that dangerous fossil fuel waste is clean.

[Javaman]

4. shhhhhhhhh, can't let the coal geni out! got to keep the mouthbreathers

believing that current hydrogen production is clean!

[razzleberry]

3. combined heat-and-electric.power efficiency of 50% is miserable

yuck

[philb]

5. you apparently didn't bother to read and understand the information; CHP = 85%

The efficiency without heat capture is 50%; with captured heat use the efficiency will be 85%.

UTC Power Fuel Cells and Microturbines already have applications all over the country getting over 80% effeciecy, such as:

http://www.utcpower.com/fs/com/bin/fs_com_Page/0,11491,043,00.html

But the author of the thread is also wrong about the efficiency of electric systems, in general about 40% efficiency, 60% losses.
But I also thought most of the UTC fuel cells were phosporic acid cells rather than PEM?


And their units can use methane from landfills, manure, or sewers as fuel

Fuel Cell Energy also has even larger units of a technology that doesn't require reformer. And may be more versatile in use of fuels like sewer gas.

Fuel Cell Energy has fuel cells of 1 MW and larger.

[razzleberry]

6. what are you talking about?

from the article.
>Customers also have to exploit the heat that comes off the reaction, he added. Fujitsu's fuel cell is about 50 percent efficient when the recaptured heat is added.<


I could do the same thing with a diesel generator,
by trying to do something with hot radiator
water and hot exhaust. So what?